WITCH,  WARLOCK,  AND  MAGICIAN. 


WITCH,    WARLOCK,    AND 
MAGICIAN  ^ 


UMstorical  Sfectcbcs  of  /IDaoic  ant>  Witchcraft 
in  ]£n0lant>  ant>  Scotland 


BY 

XV.    H.     DAVENPORT    ADAMS 


Dreams  and  the  light  imaginings  of  men ' 

SHELLEV 


J.    W.    BOUT  ON 
706    &    1152    BROADWAY 

NEW   YORK 
1889 


A* 


• 


PREFACE. 


THE  following  pages  may  be  regarded  as  a  contribu- 
tion towards  that  *  History  of  Human  Error '  which 
was  undertaken  by  Mr.  Augustine  Caxton.  I  fear 
that  many  minds  will  have  to  devote  all  their  energies 
to  the  work,  if  it  is  ever  to  be  brought  to  completion ; 
and,  indeed,  it  may  plausibly  be  argued  that  its 
completion  would  be  an  impossibility,  since  every 
generation  adds  something  to  the  melancholy  record — 
'  pulveris  exigui  parva  munera/  However  this  may 
be,  little  more  remains  to  be  said  on  the  subjects 
which  I  have  here  considered  from  the  standpoint  of 
a  sympathetic  though  incredulous  observer.  Alchemy, 
Magic,  Witchcraft — how  exhaustively  they  have  been 
investigated  will  appear  from  the  list  of  authorities 
which  I  have  drawn  up  for  the  reader's  convenience. 
They  have  been  studied  by  c  adepts/  and  by  critics, 
as  realities  and  as  delusions  ;  and  almost  the  last 
word  would  seem  to  have  been  said  by  Science — 
though  not  on  the  side  of  the  adepts,  who  still  con- 
tinue to  dream  of  the  Hermetic  philosophy,  to  lose 
themselves  in  fanciful  pictures,  theurgic  and  occult, 
and  to  write  about  the  mysteries  of  magic  with  a 

257437 


VI  PREFACE. 

simplicity  of  faith  which  we  may  wonder  at,  but  are 
bound  to  respect. 

It  has  not  been  my  purpose,  in  the  present  volume, 
to  attempt  a  general  history  of  magic  and  alchemy,  or 
a  scientific  inquiry  into  their  psychological  aspects.  I 
have  confined  myself  to  a  sketch  of  their  progress  in 
England,  and  to  a  narrative  of  the  lives  of  our  prin- 
cipal magicians.  This  occupies  the  first  part.  The 
second  is  devoted  to  an  historical  review  of  witchcraft 
in  Great  Britain,  ajid  an  examination  into  the  most 
remarkable  Witch-Trials,  in  which  I  have  endeavoured 
to  bring  out  their  peculiar  features,  presenting  much 
of  the  evidence  adduced,  and  in  some  cases  the  so- 
called  confessions  of  the  victims,  in  the  original 
language.  I  believe  that  the  details,  notwithstanding 
the  reticence  imposed  upon  me  by  considerations  of 
delicacy  and  decorum,  will  surprise  the  reader,  and 
that  he  will  readily  admit  the  profound  interest 
attaching  to  them,  morally  and  intellectually.  I 
have  added  a  chapter  on  the  '  Literature  of  Witchcraft,' 
which,  I  hope,  is  tolerably  exhaustive,  and  now  offer 
the  whole  as  an  eifort  to  present,  in  a  popular  and 
readable  form,  the  result  of  careful  and  conscientious 
study  extending  over  many  years. 

W.  H.  D.  A. 


CONTENTS. 


INTRODUCTION. 

PA  UK 

PROGRESS  OF  ALCHEMY  IN  EUROPE  1 


BOOK  I. 
THE  ENGLISH  MAGICIANS. 

CHAPTER 

I.  ROGER  BACON  :  THE  TRUE  AND  THE  LEGENDARY  27 

II.  THE  STORY  OF  DR.  JOHN  DEE                   -  59 

III.  DR.  DEE'S  DIARY  93 

IV.  MAGIC   AND   IMPOSTURE  :   A   COUPLE   OF  KNAVES           -  102 
V.    THE    LAST    OF    THE     ENGLISH    MAGICIANS  :     WILLIAM 

LILLY  -      128 

VI.    ENGLISH   ROSICRUCIANS  -      181 

BOOK  II. 
WITCHES  AND  WITCHCRAFT. 

/  EARLY  HISTORY  OF  WITCHCRAFT  IN  ENGLAND      -  203 
n.  WITCHCRAFT  IN  ENGLAND  IN  THE  SEVENTEENTH 

/   CENTURY  -  244 

IM.    THE  DECLINE   OF  WITCHCRAFT  IN   ENGLAND  -  292 

IV.    THE  WITCHES   OF   SCOTLAND  303 

V.   THE  LITERATURE   OF  WITCHCRAFT        -  -  -  378 


WITCH,  WARLOCK,  AND  MAGICIAN. 
INTRODUCTION. 

PROGRESS    OF   ALCHEMY   IN   EUROPE. 

THE  word  ^n/mua — from  which  we  derive  our  English 
word  '  chemistry  ' — first  occurs,  it  is  said,  in  the 
Lexicon  of  Suidas,  a  Greek  writer  who  flourished  in 
the  eleventh  century.  Here  is  his  definition  of  it : 

4  Chemistry  is  the  art  of  preparing  gold  and  silver.  The  books 
concerning  it  were  sought  out  and  burnt  by  Diocletian,  on  account 
of  the  new  plots  directed  against  him  by  the  Egyptians.  He 
behaved  towards  them  with  great  cruelty  in  his  search  after  the 
treatises  written  by  the  ancients,  his  purpose  being  to  prevent 
them  from  growing  rich  by  a  knowledge  of  this  art,  lest,  em- 
boldened by  measureless  wealth,  they  should  be  induced  to  resist 
the  Eoman  supremacy.' 

Some  authorities  assert,  however,  that  this  art,  or 
pretended  art,  is  of  much  greater  antiquity  than 
Suidas  knew  of ;  and  Scaliger  refers  to  a  Greek 
manuscript  by  Zozomen,  of  the  fifth  century,  which 
is  entitled  '  A  Faithful  Description  of  the  Secret  and 
Divine  Art  of  Making  Gold  and  Silver.'  We  may 
assume  that  as  soon  as  mankind  had  begun  to  set  an 
artificial  value  upon  these  metals,  and  had  acquired 

1 


2  WITCH,    WARLOCK,    AND    MAGICIAN. 

some  knowledge  of  chemical  elements,  their  combina- 
tions and  permutations,  they  would  entertain  a  desire 
to  multiply  them  in  measureless  quantities.  Dr. 
Shaw  speaks  of  no  fewer  than  eighty-nine  ancient 
manuscripts,  scattered  through  the  European  libraries, 
which  are  all  occupied  with  ;  the  chemical  art/  or 
c  the  holy  art,'  or,  as  it  is  sometimes  called,  '  the 
philosopher's  stone '  ;  and  a  fair  conclusion  seems  to 
be  that  c  between  the  fifth  century  and  the  taking  of 
Constantinople  in  the  fifteenth,  the  Greeks  believed  in 
the  possibility  of  making  gold  and  silver/  and  called 
the  supposed  process,  or  processes,  chemistry. 

The  delusion  was  taken  up  by  the  Arabians  when, 
under  their  Abasside  Khalifs,  they  entered  upon  the 
cultivation  of  scientific  knowledge.  The  Arabians  con- 
veyed it  into  Spain,  whence  its  diffusion  over  Chris- 
tendom was  a  simple  work  of  time,  sure  if  gradual. 
From  the  eleventh  to  the  sixteenth  century,  alchemy 
was  more  or  less  eagerly  studied  by  the  scholars  of 
Germany,  Italy,  France,  and  England ;  and  the 
volumes  in  which  they  recorded  both  their  learning 
and  their  ignorance,  the  little  they  knew  and  the 
more  they  did  not  know,  compose  quite  a  considerable 
library.  One  hundred  and  twenty-two  are  enumerated 
in  the  '  Bibliotheca  Chemica  Curiosa,'  of  Mangetus,  a 
dry-as-dust  kind  of  compilation,  in  two  huge  volumes, 
printed  at  Geneva  in  1702.  Any  individual  who 
has  time  and  patience  to  expend  ad  libitum,  cannot 
desire  a  fairer  field  of  exercise  than  the  'Bibliotheca.' 
One  very  natural  result  of  all  this  vain  research  and 
profitless  inquiry  was  a  keen  anxiety  on  the  part  of 


me 


INTRODUCTION.  3 

victims  to  dignify  their  labours  by  claiming  for  their 
i  sciences,  falsely  so-called/  a  venerable  and  mys- 
terious origin.  They  accordingly  asserted  that  the 
founder  or  creator  was  Hermes  Trismegistus,  whom 
some  of  them  professed  to  identify  with  Chanaan,  the 
son  of  Ham,  whose  son  Mizraim  first  occupied  and 
peopled  Egypt.  Now,  it  is  clear  that  any  person 
might  legitimately  devote  his  nights  and  days  to  the 
pursuit  of  a  science  invented,  or  originally  taught, 
by  no  less  illustrious  an  ancient  than  Hermes 
Trismegistus.  But  to  clothe  it  with  the  awe  of  a 
still  greater  antiquity,  they  affirmed  that  its  principles 
had  been  discovered,  engraved  in  Phoenician  char- 
acters, on  an  emerald  tablet  which  Alexander  the 
Great  exhumed  from  the  philosopher's  tomb.  Un- 
fortunately, as  is  always  the  case,  the  tablet  was  lost ; 
but  we  are  expected  to  believe  that  two  Latin  versions 
of  the  inscription  had  happily  been  preserved.  One 
of  these  may  be  Englished  as  hereinunder  : 

1.  I  speak  no  frivolous  things,  but  only  what  is 
true  and  most  certain. 

2.  What  is  below  resembles  that  which  is  above, 
and  what  is  above  resembles  that  which  is  below, 
to  accomplish    the   one   thing    of    all   things    most 
wonderful. 

3.  And  as  all  things  proceeded  from  the  medita- 
tion of  the  One  God,  so  were  all  things  generated 
from  this  one  thing  by  the  disposition  of  Nature. 

4.  Its   father   is   Sol,  its   mother    Luna;    it  was 
engendered  in  the  womb  by  the  air,  and  nourished  by 
the  earth. 

1—2 


4  WITCH,    WARLOCK,    AND    MAGICIAN. 

5.  It  is  the  cause  of  all  the  perfection  of  things 
throughout  the  whole  world. 

6.  It  arrives  at  the  highest  perfection  of  powers  if 
it  be  reduced  into  earth. 

7.  Separate  the  earth  from  the  fire,  the  subtle  from 
the  gross,  acting  with  great  caution. 

8.  Ascend  with   the   highest  wisdom  from   earth 
to  heaven,  and  thence  descend  again  to  earth,   and 
bind   together   the   powers   of  things    superior   and 
things  inferior.     So  shall  you  compass  the  glory  of 
the  whole  world,  and  divest  yourself  of  the  abjectness 
of  humanity. 

9.  This   thing  has  more  fortitude  than  fortitude 
itself,  since  it  will  overcome  everything  subtle  and 
penetrate  everything  solid. 

10.  All  that  the  world  contains  was  created  by  it. 

11.  Hence  proceed  things  wonderful  which  in  this 
wise  were  established. 

12.  For   this  reason   the   name  of  Hermes  Tris- 
megistus  was  bestowed  upon  me,  because  I  am  master 
of  three  parts  of  the  philosophy  of  the  whole  world. 

13.  This  is  what  I  had  to  say  concerning  the  most 
admirable  process  of  the  chemical  art. 

These  oracular  utterances  are  so  vague  and  obscure 
that  an  enthusiast  may  read  into  them  almost  any  mean- 
ing he  chooses  ;  but  there  seems  a  general  consensus  of 
opinion  that  they  refer  to  the  '  universal  medicine ' 
of  the  earlier  alchemists.  This,  however,  is  of  no 
great  importance,  since  it  is  certain  they  were 
invented  by  some  ingenious  hand  as  late  as  the 
fifteenth  century.  Another  forgery  of  a  similar  kind 


INTRODUCTION.  5 

is  the  '  Tractatus  Aureus  de  Lapidis  Physici  Secretis,' 
also  attributed  to  Hermes ;  it  professes  to  describe 
the  process  of  making  this  '  universal  medicine/  or 
( philosopher's  stone/  and  the  formulary  is  thus 
translated  by  Thomson : 

*  Take  of  moisture  an  ounce  and  a  half ;  of  meridional  redness — 
that  is,  the  soul  of  the  sun — a  fourth  part,  that  is,  half  an  ounce  ; 
of  yellow  sage  likewise  half  an  ounce ;  and  of  auripigmentum 
half  an  ounce  ;  making  in  all  three  ounces.' 

Such  a  recipe  does  not  seem  to  help  forward  an 
enthusiastic  student  to  any  material  extent. 

THE    EARLIER    ALCHEMISTS. 

It  is  in  the  erudite  writings  of  the  great  Arabian 
physician,  Gebir — that  is,  Abu  Moussah  Djafar,  sur- 
named  Al  Soft,  or  The  Wise — that  the  science  of 
alchemy,  or  chemistry  (at  first  the  two  were  identi- 
cal), first  assumes  a  definite  shape.  Gebir  flourished 
in  the  early  part  of  the  eighth  century,  and  wrote,  it 
is  said,  upwards  of  five  hundred  treatises  on  the 
philosopher's  stone  and  the  elixir  of  life.  In  reference 
to  the  latter  mysterious  potion,  which  possessed  the 
wonderful  power  of  conferring  immortal  youth  on 
those  who  drank  of  it,  one  may  remark  that  it  was 
the  necessary  complement  of  the  philosopher's  stone, 
for  what  would  be  the  use  of  an  unlimited  faculty  of 
making  gold  and  silver  unless  one  could  be  sure  of 
an  immortality  in  which  to  enjoy  its  exercise  ? 
Gebir's  principal  work,  the  '  Summae  Perfections/ 
containing  instructions  for  students  in  search  of  the 
two  great  secrets,  has  been  translated  into  several 


6  WITCH,    WARLOCK,    AND    MAGICIAN. 

European  languages  ;  and  an  English  version,  by 
Eichard  Russell,  the  alchemist,  was  published  in 
1686. 

Gebir  lays  down,  as  a  primary  principle,  that  all 
metals  are  compounds  of  mercury  and  sulphur.  They 
all  labour  under  disease,  he  says,  except  gold,  which  is 
the  one  metal  gifted  with  perfect  health.  Therefore,  a 
preparation  of  it  would  dispel  every  ill  which  flesh  is 
heir  to,  as  well  as  the  maladies  of  plants.  We  may 
excuse  his  extravagances,  however,  in  consideration 
of  the  services  he  rendered  to  science  by  his  discovery 
of  corrosive  sublimate,  red  oxide  of  mercury,  white 
oxide  of  arsenic,  nitric  acid,  oxide  of  copper,  and 
nitrate  of  silver,  all  of  which  originally  issued  from 
Gebir's  laboratory. 

Briefly  speaking,  the  hypothesis  assumed  by  the 
alchemists  was  this  :  all  the  metals  are  compounds, 
and  the  baser  contain  the  same  elements  as  gold, 
contaminated,  indeed,  with  various  impurities,  but 
capable,  when  these  have  been  purged  away,  of  assum- 
ing all  its  properties  and  characters.  The  substance 
which  was  to  effect  this  purifying  process  they 
called  the  philosopher's  stone  (lapis  philosophorum), 
though,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  it  is  always  described 
as  a  powder — a  powder  red-coloured,  and  smelling 
strongly.  Few  of  the  alchemists,  however,  venture 
on  a  distinct  statement  that  they  had  discovered  or 
possessed  this  substance. 

The  arch-quack  Paracelsus  makes  the  assertion,  of 
course  ;  unblushing  mendacity  was  part  of  his  stock- 
in-trade  ;  and  he  pretends  even  to  define  the  methods 


INTRODUCTION.  7 

by  which  it  may  be  realized.  Unfortunately,  to 
ordinary  mortals  his  description  is  absolutely  ^oin- 
intelligible.  Others  there  are  who  affirm  that  they 
had  seen  it,  and  seen  it  in  operation,  transmuting 
lead,  quicksilver,  and  other  of  the  inferior  metals  into 
ruddy  gold.  One  wonders  that  they  did  not  claim  a 
share  in  a  process  which  involved  such  boundless 
potentialities  of  wealth! 

Helvetius,  the  physician,  though  no  believer  in  the 
magical  art,  tells  the  following  wild  story  in  his 
'  Vitulus  Aureus ' : 

On  December  26,  1666,  a  stranger  called  upon  him, 
and,  after  discussing  the  supposed  properties  of  the 
universal  medicine,  showed  him  a  yellow  powder, 
which  he  declared  to  be  the  lapis,  and  also  five  large 
plates  of  gold,  which,  he  said,  were  the  product  of  its 
action.  Naturally  enough,  Helvetius  begged  for  a 
few  grains  of  this  marvellous  powder,  or  that  the 
stranger  would  at  least  exhibit  its  potency  in  his 
presence.  He  refused,  however,  but  promised  that  he 
would  return  in  six  weeks.  He  kept  his  promise, 
and  then,  after  much  entreaty,  gave  Helvetius  a  pinch 
of  the  powder — about  as  much  as  a  rape- seed.  The 
physician  expressed  his  fe.ar  that  so  minute  a  quantity 
would  not  convert  as  much  as  four  grains  of  lead  ; 
whereupon  the  stranger  broke  off  one-half,  and 
declared  that  the  remainder  was  more  than  sufficient 
for  the  purpose.  During  their  first  conference, 
Helvetius  had  contrived  to  conceal  a  little  of  the 
powder  beneath  his  thumb-nail.  This  he  dropped  into 
some  molten  lead,  but  it  was  nearly  all  exhaled  in 


8  WITCH,    WARLOCK,    AND    MAGICIAN. 

smoke,    and    the  residue  was  simply   of  a   vitreous 
character. 

On  mentioning  this  circumstance  to  his  visitor,  he 
explained  that  the  powder  should  have  been  enclosed 
in  wax  before  it  was  thrown  into  the  molten  lead, 
to  prevent  the  fumes  of  the  lead  from  affecting  it. 
He  added  that  he  would  come  back  next  day,  and 
show  him  how  to  make  the  projection  ;  but  as  he 
failed  to  appear,  Helvetius.  in  the  presence  of  his  wife 
and  son,  put  six  drachms  of  lead  into  a  crucible,  and 
as  soon  as  the  lead  was  melted,  flung  into  it  the 
atoms  of  powder  given  to  him  by  his  mysterious 
visitor,  having  first  rolled  them  up  in  a  little  ball  of 
wax.  At  the  end  of  a  quarter  of  an  hour  he  found 
the  lead  transmuted  (so  he  avers)  into  gold.  Its 
colour  at  first  was  a  deep  green;  but  the  mixture, 
when  poured  into  a  conical  vessel,  turned  blood -red, 
and,  after  cooling,  acquired  the  true  tint  of  gold.  A 
goldsmith  who  examined  it  pronounced  it  to  be 
genuine.  Helvetius  requested  Purelius,  the  keeper 
of  the  Dutch  Mint,  to  test  its  value  ;  and  two 
drachms,  after  being  exposed  to  aquafortis,  were 
found  to  have  increased  a  couple  of  scruples  in  weight — 
an  increase  doubtlessly  owing  to  the  silver,  which  still 
remained  enveloped  in  the  gold,  despite  the  action  of 
the  aquafortis. 

It  is  obvious  that  this  narrative  is  a  complete 
mystification,  and  that  either  the  stranger  was  a 
myth  or  Helvetius  was  the  victim  of  a  decep- 
tion. 

The  recipes  that  the  alchemists  formulate — those, 


INTRODUCTION.  9 

that  is,  who  profess  to  have  discovered  the  stone, 
or  to  have  known  somebody  who  enjoyed  so  rare  a 
fortune — are  always  unintelligible  or  impracticable. 
What  is  to  be  understood,  for  example,  of  the  follow- 
ing elaborate  process,  or  series  of  processes,  which 
are  recorded  by  Man  get  us,  in  his  preface  to  the 
ponderous  4  Bibliotheca  Chemica '  (to  which  reference 
has  already  been  made)  ? 

1.  Prepare  a  quantity  of  spirits  of  wine,  so  free 
from    water   as   to   be  wholly   combustible,  and   so 
volatile  that  a  drop  of  it,  if  let  fall,  will  evaporate 
before  it  reaches  the  ground.     This  constitutes  the 
first  menstruum. 

2.  Take    pure    mercury,    revived    in    the    usual 
manner  from  cinnabar  ;    put  it  into  a  glass  vessel 
with    common    salt    and    distilled    vinegar ;    shake 
violently,  and  when  the  vinegar  turns  black,  pour  it 
off,  and  add  fresh  vinegar.     Shake  again,  and  con- 
tinue  these   repeated    shakings    and  additions  until 
the    mercury   no   longer   turns   the   vinegar   black  ; 
the    mercury    will    then    be   quite   pure    and    very 
brilliant. 

3.  Take  of  this  mercury  four  parts  ;  of  sublimed 
mercury    (mercurii  meteor esati  —  probably   corrosive 
sublimate),  prepared   with   your   own   hands,  eight 
parts  ;  triturate  them  together  in  a  wooden  mortar 
with  a  wooden  pestle,  till  all  the  grains  of  running 
mercury  disappear.     (This  process  is  truly  described 
as  '  tedious  and  rather  difficult.') 

4.  The  mixture  thus  prepared  is  to  be  put  into  a 
sand-bath,  and  exposed  to  a  subliming  heat,  which 


10  WITCH,    WARLOCK,    AND    MAGICIAN. 

is  to  be  gradually  increased  until  the  whole  sublimes. 
Collect  the  sublimed  matter,  put  it  again  into  the 
sand-bath,  and  sublime  a  second  time  ;  this  process 
must  be  repeated  five  times.  The  product  is  a  very 
sweet  crystallized  sublimate,  constituting  the  sal 
sapientum,  or  wise  men's  salt  (probably  calomel),  and 
possessing  wonderful  properties. 

5.  Grind  it  in  a  wooden  mortar,  reducing  it   to 
powder  ;    put  this  powder  into  a  glass   retort,   and 
pour  upon  it  the  spirit  of  wine   (see  No.  1)  till  it 
stands  about  three  finger-breadths  above  the  powder. 
Seal  the  retort  hermetically,  and  expose  it  to  a  very 
gentle  heat  for  seventy-four  hours,  shaking  it  several 
times  a  day  ;  then  distil  with  a  gentle  heat,  and  the 
spirit  of  wine  will  pass  over,  together  with  spirit  of 
mercury.     Keep  this  liquid  in  a  well-stoppered  bottle, 
lest  it  should  evaporate.     More  spirit  of  wine  is  to 
be  poured  upon  the  residual  salt,  and  after  digestion 
must  be  distilled  off,  as  before  ;  and  this  operation 
must  be  repeated  until  all  the  salt  is  dissolved  and 
given  off  with  the  spirit  of  wine.     A  great  work 
will  then  have  been  accomplished !     For  the  mercury, 
having  to  some  extent  been  rendered  volatile,  will 
gradually  become  fit  to  receive  the  tincture  of  gold 
and  silver.      Now  return  thanks  to  God,  who  has 
hitherto  crowned  your  wonderful  work  with  success. 
Nor  is  this  wonderful  work  enveloped  in  Cimmerian 
darkness  ;  it  is  clearer  than  the  sun,  though  preceding 
writers  have  sought  to  impose  upon  us  with  parables, 
hieroglyphs,  fables,  and  enigmas. 

6.  Take  this  mercurial  spirit,  which  contains  our 


INTRODUCTION.  11 

magical  steel  in  its  belly  (sic),  and  put  it  into  a  glass 
retort,  to  which  a  receiver  must  be  well  and  care- 
fully adjusted  ;  draw  off  the  spirit  by  a  very  gentle 
heat,  and  in  the  bottom  of  the  retort  will  remain 
the  quintessence  or  soul  of  mercury.  This  is  to  be 
sublimed  by  applying  a  stronger  heat  to  the  retort 
that  it  may  become  volatile,  as  all  the  philosophers 
affirm  : 

*  Si  fixum  solvas  faciesque  volare  solutum, 
Et  volucrum  figas  faciet  te  vivere  tutum.' 

This  is  our  luna,  our  fountain,  in  which  '  the  king  ' 
and  '  the  queen '  may  bathe.  Preserve  this  precious 
quintessence  of  mercury,  which  is  exceedingly  volatile, 
in  a  well-closed  vessel  for  further  use. 

8.  Let  us  now  proceed  to  the  production  of  common 
gold,  which  we  shall  communicate  clearly  and  dis- 
tinctly, without  digression  or  obscurity,  in  order 
that  from  this  common  gold  we  may  obtain  our 
philosophical  gold,  just  as  from  common  mercury  we 
have  obtained,  by  the  foregoing  processes,  philo- 
sophical mercury.  In  the  name  of  God,  then,  take 
common  gold,  purified  in  the  usual  way  by  antimony, 
and  reduce  it  into  small  grains,  which  must  be 
washed  with  salt  and  vinegar  until  they  are  quite 
pure.  Take  one  part  of  this  gold,  and  pour  on  it 
three  parts  of  the  quintessence  of  mercury  :  as  philo- 
sophers reckon  from  seven  to  ten,  so  do  we  also 
reckon  our  number  as  philosophical,  and  begin  with 
three  and  one.  Let  them  be  married  together,  like 
husband  and  wife,  to  produce  children  of  their  own 
kind,  and  you  will  see  the  common  gold  sink  and 


12  WITCH,    WARLOCK,    AND   MAGICIAN. 

plainly  dissolve.  Now  the  marriage  is  consum- 
mated ;  and  two  things  are  converted  into  one. 
Thus  the  philosophical  sulphur  is  at  hand,  as  the 
philosophers  say  :  '  The  sulphur  being  dissolved,  the 
stone  is  at  hand.'  Take  then,  in  the  name  of  God, 
our  philosophical  vessel,  in  which  the  king  and 
queen  embrace  each  other  as  in  a  bedchamber,  and 
leave  it  till  the  water  is  converted  into  earth  ;  then 
peace  is  concluded  between  the  water  and  the  fire — 
then  the  elements  no  longer  possess  anything  con- 
trary to  each  other — because,  when  the  elements  are 
converted  into  earth,  they  cease  to  be  antagonistic  ; 
for  in  earth  all  elements  are  at  rest.  The  philosophers 
say  :  *  When  you  shall  see  the  water  coagulate,  believe 
that  your  knowledge  is  true,  and  that  all  your  opera- 
tions are  truly  philosophical.'  Our  gold  is  no  longer 
common,  but  philosophical,  through  the  processes  it 
has  undergone  :  at  first,  it  was  exceedingly  '  fixed ' 
(Jixwii) ;  then  exceedingly  volatile  ;  and  again,  ex- 
ceedingly fixed  :  the  entire  science  depends  upon  the 
change  of  the  elements.  The  gold,  at  first  a  metal, 
is  now  a  sulphur,  capable  of  converting  all  metals 
into  its  own  sulphur.  And  our  tincture  is  wholly 
converted  into  sulphur,  which  possesses  the  energy 
of  curing  every  disease  ;  this  is  our  universal 
medicine  against  all  the  most  deplorable  ills  of  the 
human  body.  Therefore,  return  infinite  thanks  to 
Almighty  God  for  all  the  good  things  which  He  hath 
bestowed  upon  us. 

9.  In  this  great  work  of  ours,   two  methods  of 
fermentation   and    projection   are   wanting,   without 


INTRODUCTION.  13 

which  the  uninitiated  will  not  readily  follow  out  our 
process.  The  mode  of  fermentation  :  Of  the  sulphur 
already  described  take  one  part,  and  project  it  upon 
three  parts  of  very  pure  gold  fused  in  a  furnace. 
In  a  moment  you  will  see  the  gold,  by  the  force  of 
the  sulphur,  converted  into  a  red  sulphur  of  an 
inferior  quality  to  the  primary  sulphur.  Take  one 
part  of  this,  and  project  it  upon  three  parts  of  fused 
gold  ;  the  whole  will  again  be  converted  into  a 
sulphur  or  a  fixable  mass  ;  mixing  one  part  of  this 
with  three  parts  of  gold,  you  will  have  a  malleable 
and  extensible  metal.  If  you  find  it  so,  it  is  well ;  if 
not,  add  more  sulphur,  and  it  will  again  pass  into  a  state 
of  sulphur.  Now  our  sulphur  will  sufficiently  be  fer- 
mented, or  our  medicine  brought  into  a  metallic  nature. 

10.  The  method  of  projection  is  this  :  Take  of 
the  fermented  sulphur  one  part,  and  project  it  upon 
two  parts  of  mercury,  heated  in  a  crucible,  and  you 
will  have  a  perfect  metal ;  if  its  colour  be  not  suffi- 
ciently deep,  fuse  it  again,  and  add  more  fermented 
sulphur,  and  thus  it  will  gain  colour.  If  it  become 
frangible,  add  a  sufficient  quantity  of  mercury,  and  it 
will  be  perfect. 

Thus,  friend,  you  have  a  description  of  the 
universal  medicine,  not  only  for  curing  diseases  and 
prolonging  life,  but  also  for  transmuting  all  metals 
into  gold.  Give  thanks,  therefore,  to  Almighty 
God,  who,  taking  pity  on  human  calamities,  hath  at 
last  revealed  this  inestimable  treasure,  and  made  it 
known  for  the  common  benefit  of  all. 

Such   is   the  jargon   with   which   these   so-called 


14  WITCH,    WARLOCK,    AND    MAGICIAN. 

philosophers  imposed  upon  their  dupes,  and,  to  some 
extent  perhaps,  upon  themselves.  As  Dr.  Thomson 
points  out,  the  philosopher's  stone  prepared  by  this 
elaborate  process  could  hardly  have  been  anything 
else  than  an  amalgam  of  gold.  Chloride  of  gold  it 
could  not  have  contained,  because  such  a  prepara- 
tion, instead  of  acting  medicinally,  would  have 
proved  a  most  virulent  poison.  Of  course,  amalgam 
of  gold,  if  projected  into  melted  lead  or  tin,  and 
afterwards  cupellated,  would  leave  a  portion  of  gold 
— that  is,  exactly  the  amount  which  existed  previously 
in  the  amalgam.  Impostors  may,  therefore,  have 
availed  themselves  of  it  to  persuade  the  credulous 
that  it  was  really  the  philosopher's  stone  ;  but  the 
alchemists  who  prepared  the  amalgam  must  have 
known  that  it  contained  gold.* 

It  is  well  known  that  the  mediae val  magicians, 
necromancers,  conjurers — call  them  by  what  name  you 
will — who  adopted  alchemy  as  an  instrument  of  im- 
position, and  by  no  means  in  the  spirit  of  philosophical 
inquiry  and  research  which  had  characterized  their 
predecessors,  resorted  to  various  ingenious  devices  in 
order  to  maintain  their  hold  upon  their  victims. 
Sometimes  they  made  use  of  crucibles  with  false 
bottoms — at  the  real  bottom  they  concealed  a  portion 
of  oxide  of  gold  or  silver  covered  with  powdered 
sulphur,  which  had  been  rendered  adhesive  by  a  little 
gummed  water  or  wax.  When  heat  was  applied  the 
false  bottom  melted  away,  and  the  oxide  of  gold  or 

*  Cf.  Stahl,  *  Fundamenta  Chimise/  cap.  '  De  Lapide  Philoso- 
phorum  ';  and  Kircher,  '  Mundus  Subterraneus.' 


INTRODUCTION.  1 5 

silver  eventually  appeared  as  the  product  of  the 
operation  at  the  bottom  of  the  crucible.  Some- 
times they  made  a  hole  in  a  lump  of  charcoal,  and 
filling  it  with  oxide  of  gold  or  silver,  stopped  up 
the  orifice  with  wax  ;  or  they  soaked  charcoal  in 
a  solution  of  these  metals  ;  or  they  stirred  the  mixture 
in  the  crucible  with  hollow  rods,  containing  oxide  of 
gold  or  silver,  closed  up  at  the  bottom  with  wax.  A 
faithful  representation  of  the  stratagems  to  which  the 
pseudo-alchemist  resorted,  that  his  dupes  might  not 
recover  too  soon  from  their  delusion,  is  furnished  by 
Ben  Jonson  in  his  comedy  of  '  The  Alchemist,'  and  his 
masque  of  '  Mercury  vindicated  from  the  Alchemists/ 
The  dramatist  was  thoroughly  conversant  with  the 
technicalities  of  the  pretended  science,  and  also  with 
the  deceptions  of  its  professors.  In  the  masque  he 
puts  into  the  mouth  of  Mercury  an  indignant  protest : 

1  The  mischief  a  secret  any  of  them  knows,  above  the  con- 
suming of  coals  and  drawing  of  usquebagh  ;  howsoever  they  may 
pretend,  under  the  specious  names  of  Gebir,  Arnold,  Lully,  or 
Bombast  of  Hohenheim,  to  commit  miracles  in  art,  and  treason 
against  nature !  As  if  the  title  of  philosopher,  that  creature  of 
glory,  were  to  be  fetched  out  of  a  furnace  !' 

But  while  the  world  is  full  of  fools,  it  is  too  much 
to  expect  there  shall  be  any  lack  of  knaves  to  prey 
upon  them ! 


IN    THE    MIDDLE    AGES. 

The  first  of  the  great  European  alchemists  I  take 
to  have  been 

Albertus  Magnus  or  Albertus  Teutonicus  (Frater 
Albertus  de  Colonia  and  Albertus  Grotus,  as  he  is  also 


16  WITCH,    WARLOCK,    AND    MAGICIAN. 

called),  a  man  of  remarkable  intellectual  energy  and 
^exceptional  force  of  character,  who  has  sometimes, 
and  not  without  justice,  been  termed  the  founder  of 
the  Schoolmen.  Neither  the  place  nor  the  date  of  his 
birth  is  authentically  known,  but  he  was  still  in  his 
young  manhood  when,  about  1222,  he  was  appointed 
to  the  chair  of  theology  at  Padua,  and  became  a 
member  of  the  Dominican  Order.  He  did  not  long 
retain  the  professorship,  and,  departing  from  Padua, 
taught  with  great  success  in  Ratisbon,  Koln,  S trass- 
burg,  and  Paris,  residing  in  the  last-named  city  for 
three  years,  together  with  his  illustrious  disciple, 
Thomas  Aquinas.  In  1260  he  was  appointed  to  the 
See  of  Ratisbon,  though  he  had  not  previously  held 
any  ecclesiastical  dignity,  but  soon  resigned,  on  the 
ground  that  its  duties  interfered  vexatiously  with  his 
studies.  Twenty  years  later,  at  a  ripe  old  age,  he 
died,  leaving  behind  him,  as  monuments  of  his  per- 
sistent industry  and  intellectual  subtlety,  one-and- 
twenty  ponderous  folios,  which  include  commentaries 
on  Aristotle,  on  the  Scriptures,  and  on  Dionysius  the 
Areopagite.  Among  his  minor  works  occurs  a  treatise 
/  /"6n  alchemy,  which  seems  to  show  that  he  was  a 
devout  believer  in  the  science. 

From  the  marvellous  stories  of  his  thaumaturgic 
exploits  which  have  come  down  to  us,  we  may  infer 
that  he  had  attained  a  considerable  amount  of  skill  in 
experimental  chemistry.  The  brazen  statue  which  he 
animated,  and  the  garrulity  of  which  was  so  offensive 
that  Thomas  Aquinas  one  day  seized  a  hammer,  and, 
provoked  beyond  all  endurance,  smashed  it  to  pieces, 


INTRODUCTION.  17 

may  be  a  reminiscence  of  his  powers  as  a  ventriloquist. 
And  the  following  story  may  hint  at  an  effective  mani- 
pulation of  the  camera  obscura :  Count  William  of 
Holland  and  King  of  the  Romans  happening  to  pass 
through  Koln,  Albertus  invited  him  and  his  courtiers 
to  his  house  to  partake  of  refreshment.  It  was  mid- 
winter ;  but  on  arriving  at  the  philosopher's  resi- 
dence they  found  the  tables  spread  in  the  open 
garden,  where  snowdrifts  lay  several  feet  in  depth. 
Indignant  at  so  frugal  a  reception,  they  were  on  the 
point  of  leaving,  when  Albertus  appeared,  and  by  his 
courtesies  induced  them  to  remain.  Immediately  the 
scene  was  lighted  up  with  the  sunshine  of  summer,  a 
warm  and  balmy  air  stole  through  the  whispering 
boughs,  the  frost  and  snow  vanished,  the  melodies  of 
the  lark  dropped  from  the  sky  like  golden  rain.  But 
as  soon  as  the  feast  came  to  an  end  the  sunshine 
faded,  the  birds  ceased  their  song,  clouds  gathered 
darkling  over  the  firmament,  an  icy  blast  shrieked 
through  the  gibbering  branches,  and  the  snow  fell  in 
blinding  showers,  so  that  the  philosopher's  guests 
were  glad  to  fold  their  cloaks  about  them  and  retreat 
into  the  kitchen  to  grow  warm  before  its  blazing  fire. 
Was  this  some  clever  scenic  deception,  or  is  the 
whole  a  fiction  ? 

A  knowledge  of  the  secret  of  the  Elixir  Vitce  was  i^ 
possessed  (it  is  said)  by  Main  de  I' Isle,  or  Alanus  de 
Insulis ;  but  either  he  did  not  avail  himself  of  it,  or 
failed  to  compound  a  sufficient  quantity  of  the  magic 
potion,  for  he  died  under  the  sacred  roof  of  Citeaux, 
in  1298,  at  the  advanced  age  of  110. 

2 


18  WITCH,    WARLOCK,    AND    MAGICIAN. 

Arnold  de  Villeneuve,  who  attained,  in  the  thir- 
teenth century,  some  distinction  as  a  physician,  an 
astronomer,  an  astrologer,  and  an  alchemist — and  was 
really  a  capable  man  of  science,  as  science  was  then 
understood — formulates  an  elaborate  recipe  for  rejuve- 
nating one's  self,  which,  however,  does  not  seem  to 
have  been  very  successful  in  his  own  case,  since  he 
died  before  he  was  70.  Perhaps  he  was  as  disgusted 
with  the  compound  as  (in  the  well-known  epitaph) 
the  infant  was  with  this  mundane  sphere — he  c  liked 
it  not,  and  died.'  I  think  there  are  many  who  would 
forfeit  longevity  rather  than  partake  of  it. 

'  Twice  or  thrice  a  week  you  must  anoint  your 
body  thoroughly  with  the  manna  of  cassia  ;  and  every 
night,  before  going  to  bed,  you  must  place  over  your 
heart  a  plaster,  composed  of  a  certain  quantity  (or, 
rather,  uncertain,  for  definite  and  precise  proportions 
are  never  particularized)  of  Oriental  saffron,  red  rose- 
leaves,  sandal-wood,  aloes,  and  amber,  liquefied  in  oil 
of  roses  and  the  best  white  wax.  During  the  day 
this  must  be  kept  in  a  leaden  casket.  You  must  next 
pen  up  in  a  court,  where  the  water  is  sweet  and  the 
air  pure,  sixteen  chickens,  if  you  are  of  a  sanguine 
temperament ;  twenty-five,  if  phlegmatic  ;  and  thirty, 
if  melancholic.  Of  these  you  are  to  eat  one  a  day, 
after  they  have  been  fattened  in  such  a  manner  as  to 
have  absorbed  into  their  system  the  qualities  which 
will  ensure  your  longevity;  for  which  purpose  they 
are  first  to  be  kept  without  food  until  almost  starved, 
and  then  gorged  with  a  broth  of  serpents  and  vinegar, 
thickened  with  wheat  and  beans,  for  at  least  two 


INTRODUCTION.  19 

months.  When  they  are  served  at  your  table  you 
will  drink  a  moderate  quantity  of  white  wine  or  claret 
to  assist  digestion.' 

I  should  think  it  would  be  needed ! 

Among  the  alchemists  must  be  included  Pietro 
d'Apono.  He  was  an  eminent  physician;  but,  being 
accused  of  heresy,  was  thrown  into  prison  and  died 
there.  His  ecclesiastical  persecutors,  however,  burned 
his  bones  rather  than  be  entirely  disappointed  of  their 
auto  da  fe.  Like  most  of  the  mediaeval  physicians,  he 
indulged  in  alchemical  and  astrological  speculations  ; 
but  they  proved  to  Pietro  d'Apono  neither  pleasurable 
nor  profitable.  It  was  reputed  of  him  that  he  had 
summoned  a  number  of  evil  spirits ;  and,  on  their 
obeying  his  call,  had  shut  them  up  in  seven  crystal 
vases,  where  he  detained  them  until  he  had  occasion 
for  their  services.  In  his  selection  of  them  he  seems 
to  have  displayed  a  commendably  catholic  taste  and 
love  of  knowledge ;  for  one  was  an  expert  in  poetry, 
another  in  painting,  a  third  in  philosophy,  a  fourth  in 
physic,  a  fifth  in  astrology,  a  sixth  in  music,  and  a 
seventh  in  alchemy.  So  that  when  he  required  in- 
struction in  either  of  these  arts  or  sciences,  he  simply 
tapped  the  proper  crystal  vase  and  laid  on  a  spirit. 

The  story  seems  to  be  a  fanciful  allusion  to  the 
various  acquirements  of  Pietro  d'Apono ;  but  if  in- 
tended at  first  as  a  kind  of  allegory,  it  came  in  due 
time  to  be  accepted  literally. 

I  pass  on  to  the  great  Spanish  alchemist  and  ma 
cian,  Raymond  Lully,  or  Lulli,  who  was  scarcely  inferior 

2—2 


20  WITCH,    WAELOCK,    AND    MAGICIAN. 

in  fame,  or  the  qualities  which  merited  fame,  even  to 
Albertus  Magnus.  He  was  a  man,  not  only  of  wide,  but 
of  accurate  scholarship  :  and  the  two  or  three  hundred 
treatises  which  proceeded  from  his  pen  traversed  the 
entire  circle  of  the  learning  of  his  age,  dealing  with 
almost  every  conceivable  subject  from  medicine  to 
morals,  from  astronomy  to  theology,  and  from  alchemy 
to  civil  and  canon  law.  His  life  had  its  romantic 
aspects,  and  his  death  (in  1315  ?)  was  invested  with 
something  of  the  glory  of  martyrdom  ;  for  while  he  was 
preaching  to  the  Moslems  at  Bona,  the  mob  fell  upon 
him  with  a  storm  of  stones,  and  though  he  was  still 
alive  when  rescued  by  some  Genoese  merchants,  and 
conveyed  on  board  their  vessel,  he  died  of  the  injuries 
he  had  received  before  it  arrived  in  a  Spanish  port. 

There  seems  little  reason  to  believe  that  Lulli 
visited  England  about  1312,  on  the  invitation  of 
Edward  II.  Dickenson,  in  his  work  on  '  The  Quint- 
essences of  the  Philosophers/  asserts  that  his 
laboratory  was  established  in  Westminster  Abbey— 
that  is,  in  the  cloisters — and  that  some  time  after  his 
return  to  the  Continent  a  large  quantity  of  gold-dust 
was  found  in  the  cell  he  had  occupied.  Langlet  du 
Fresnoy  contends  that  it  was  through  the  interven- 
tion of  John  Cremer,  Abbot  of  Westminster,  a  perse- 
vering seeker  after  the  lapis  p/iilosophorum,  that  he 
came  to  England,  Cremer  having  described  him  to 
King  Edward  as  a  man  of  extraordinary  powers. 
Robert  Constantine,  in  his  '  Nomenclator  Scriptorum 
Medicorum '  (1515),  professes  to  have  discovered 
that  Lulli  resided  for  some  time  in  London,  and 


INTRODUCTION.  21 

made  gold  in  the  Tower,  and  that  he  had  seen  some  gold 
pieces  of  his  making,  which  were  known  in  England 
as  the  nobles  of  Raymond,  or  rose-nobles.  But  the 
great  objections  to  these  very  precise  statements  rests 
on  two  facts  pointed  out  by  Mr.  Waite,  that  the  rose- 
noble,  so  called  because  a  rose  was  stamped  on  each 
side  of  it,  was  first  coined  in  1465,  in  the  reign  of 
Edward  IV.,  and  that  there  never  was  an  Abbot 
Cremer  of  Westminster. 

Jean  de  Meung  is  also  included  among  the  alche- 
mists ;  but  he  bequeathed  to  posterity  in  his  glorious 
poem  of  the  *  Roman  de  la  Rose '  something  very 
much  more  precious  than  would  have  been  any 
formula  for  making  gold.  In  one  sense  he  was  in- 
deed an  alchemist,  and  possessed  the  secret  of  the 
universal  medicine ;  for  in  his  poem  his  genius  has 
transmuted  into  purest  gold  the  base  ore  of  popular 
traditions  and  legends. 

Some  of  the  stories  which  Langlet  du  Fresnoy  tells 
of  Nicholas  Fiamel  were  probably  invented  long  after 
his  death,  or  else  we  should  have  to  brand  him  as  a 
most  audacious  knave.  One  of  those  amazing  narra- 
tives pretends  that  he  bought  for  a  couple  of  florins 
an  old  and  curious  volume,  the  leaves  of  which — three 
times  seven  (this  sounds  better  than  twenty-one)  in 
number — were  made  from  the  bark  of  trees.  Each 
seventh  leaf  bore  an  allegorical  picture — the  first  re- 
presenting a  serpent  swallowing  rods,  the  second  a 
cross  with  a  serpent  crucified  upon  it,  and  the  third  a 
fountain  in  a  desert,  surrounded  by  creeping  serpents. 


22  WITCH,    WARLOCK,    AND   MAGICIAN. 

Who,  think  you,  was  the  author  of  this  mysterious 
volume  ?  No  less  illustrious  a  person  than  Abraham 
the  patriarch,  Hebrew,  prince,  philosopher,  priest, 
Levite,  and  magian,  who,  as  it  was  written  in  Latin, 
must  have  miraculously  acquired  his  foreknowledge 
of  a  tongue  which,  in  his  time,  had  no  existence.  A 
perusal  of  its  mystic  pages  convinced  Flamel  that 
he  had  had  the  good  fortune  to  discover  a  complete 
manual  on  the  art  of  transmutation  of  metals,  in 
which  all  the  necessary  vessels  were  indicated,  and 
the  processes  described.  But  there  was  one  serious 
difficulty  to  be  overcome:  the  book  assumed,  as  a 
matter  of  course,  that  the  student  was  already  in 
possession  of  that  all-important  agent  of  transmuta- 
tion, the  philosopher's  stone. 

Careful  study  led  Flamel  to  the  conclusion  that  the 
secret  of  the  stone  was  hidden  in  certain  allegorical 
drawings  on  the  fourth  and  fifth  leaves  ;  but,  then,  to 
decipher  these  was  beyond  his  powers.  He  sub- 
mitted them  to  all  the  learned  savants  and  alchemical 
adepts  he  could  get  hold  of :  they  proved  to  be  no 
wiser  than  himself,  while  some  of  them  actually 
laughed  at  Abraham's  posthumous  publication  as 
worthless  gibberish.  Flamel,  however,  clung  fast  to 
his  conviction  of  the  inestimable  value  of  his  '  find,' 
and  daily  pondered  over  the  two  cryptic  illustrations, 
which  may  thus  be  described  :  On  the  first  page  of 
the  fourth  leaf  Mercury  was  contending  with  a  figure, 
which  might  be  either  Saturn  or  Time — probably  the 
latter,  as  he  carried  on  his  head  the  emblematical 
hour-glass,  and  in  his  hand  the  not  less  emblematical 


INTRODUCTION.  23 

scythe.  On  the  second  stage  a  flower  upon  a  moun- 
tain-top presented  the  unusual  combination  of  a  blue 
stalk,  with  red  and  white  blossoms,  and  leaves  of 
pure  gold.  The  wind  appeared  to  blow  it  about  very 
harshly,  and  a  gruesome  company  of  dragons  and 
griffins  encompassed  it. 

Upon  the  study  of  these  provokingly  obscure 
designs  Flamel  fruitlessly  expended  the  leisure  time 
of  thrice  seven  years  :  after  which,  on  the  advice  of 
his  wife,  he  repaired  to  Spain  to  seek  the  assistance  of 
some  erudite  Jewish  rabbi.  He  had  been  wandering 
from  place  to  place  for  a  couple  of  years,  when  he 
met,  somewhere  in  Leon,  a  learned  Hebrew  physician, 
named  Canches,  who  agreed  to  return  with  him  to 
Paris,  and  there  examine  Abraham's  volume. 
Canches  was  deeply  versed  in  all  the  lore  of  the 
Cabala,  and  Flamel  hung  with  delight  on  the  words 
of  wisdom  that  dropped  from  his  eloquent  lips.  But 
at  Orleans  Canches  was  taken  ill  with  a  malady  of 
which  he  died,  and  Flamel  found  his  way  home,  a 
sadder,  if  not  a  wiser,  man.  He  resumed  his  study 
of  the  book,  but  for  two  more  years  could  get  no  clue 
to  its  meaning.  In  the  third  year,  recalling  some 
deliverance  of  his  departed  friend,  the  rabbi,  he  per- 
ceived that  all  his  experiments  had  hitherto  proceeded 
upon  erroneous  principles.  He  repeated  them  upon 
a  different  basis,  and  in  a  few  months  brought  them 
to  a  successful  issue.  On  January  13,  1382,  he  con- 
verted mercury  into  silver,  and  on  April  25  into 
gold.  Well  might  he  cry  in  triumph,  '  Eureka  !' 
The  great  secret,  the  sublime  magistery  was  his :  he 


24  WITCH,    WARLOCK,    AND    MAGICIAN. 

had  discovered  the  art  of  transmuting  metals  into 
gold  and  silver,  and,  so  long  as  he  kept  it  to  himself, 
had  at  his  command  the  source  of  inexhaustible 
wealth. 

At  this  time  Nicholas  Flamel,  it  is  said,  was  about 
eighty  years  old.  His  admirers  assert  that  he  also 
discovered  the  elixir  of  immortal  life ;  but,  as  he  died 
in  1419,  at  the  age  (it  is  alleged)  of  116,  he  must 
have  been  content  with  the  merest  sip  of  it !  Why 
did  he  not  reveal  its  ingredients  for  the  general  benefit 
of  our  afflicted  humanity  ?  His  immense  wealth  he 
bequeathed  to  churches  and  hospitals,  thus  making  a 
better  use  of  it  after  death  than  he  had  made  of  it  in 
his  lifetime.  For  it  is  said  that  Flamel  was  a  usurer, 
and  that  his  philosopher's  stone  was  i  cent  per  cent.' 
It  is  true  enough  that  he  dabbled  in  alchemy,  and  pro- 
bably he  made  his  alchemical  experiments  useful  in 
connection  with  his  usurious  transactions. 


BOOK    I. 

THE  ENGLISH  MAGICIANS 


CHAP.   I.  "I  ROGER    BACON.  27 


CHAPTER  I. 
ROGER  BACON:  THE  TRUE  AND  THE  LEGENDARY. 

IT  was  in  the  early  years  of  the  fourteenth  century 
that  the  two  pseudo- sciences  of  alchemy  and  astrology, 
the  supposititious  sisters  of  chemistry  and  astronomy, 
made  their  way  into  England.  At  first  their  pro- 
gress was  by  no  means  so  rapid  as  it  had  been  on  the 
Continent;  for  in  England,  as  yet,  there  was  no 
educated  class  prepared  to  give  their  leisure  to  the 
work  of  experimental  investigation.  A  solitary 
scholar  here  and  there  lighted  his  torch  at  the  altar- 
fire  which  the  Continental  philosophers  kept  burning 
with  so  much  diligence  and  curiosity,  and  was 
generally  rewarded  for  his  heterodox  enthusiasm  by 
the  persecution  of  the  Church  and  the  prejudice  of 
the  vulgar.  But  by  degrees  the  new  sciences  in- 
creased the  number  of  their  adherents,  and  the  more 
active  intellects  of  the  time  embraced  the  theory 
of  astral  influences,  and  were  fascinated  by  the  delu- 
sion of  the  philosopher's  stone.  Many  a  secret 
furnace  blazed  day  and  night  with  the  charmed 
flames  which  were  to  resolve  the  metals  into  their 
original  elements,  and  place  the  pale  student  in 


28  WITCH,    WARLOCK,    AND    MAGICIAN,      [BOOK  I. 

possession  of  the  coveted  magisterium,  or  '  universal 
medicine.'  At  length  the  alchemists  became  a  suffi- 
ciently numerous  and  important  body  to  draw  the 
attention  of  the  Government,  which  regarded  their 
proceedings  with  suspicion,  from  a  fear  that  the 
result  might  injuriously  affect  the  coinage.  In  1434 
the  Legislature  enacted  that  the  making  of  gold  or 
silver  should  be  treated  as  a  felony.  But  the  Parlia- 
ment was  influenced  by  a  very  different  motive  from 
that  of  the  King  and  his  Council,  its  patriotic  fears 
being  awakened  lest  the  Executive,  enabled  by  the 
new  science  to  increase  without  limit  the  pecuniary 
resources  of  the  Crown,  should  be  rendered  inde- 
pendent of  Parliamentary  control. 

In  the  course  of  a  few  years,  however,  broader  and 
more  enlightened  views  prevailed  ;  and  it  came  to 
be  acknowledged  that  scientific  research  ought  to 
be  relieved  from  legislative  interference.  In  1455 
Henry  VI.  issued  four  patents  in  succession  to  certain 
knights,  London  citizens,  chemists,  monks,  mass- 
priests,  and  others,  granting  them  leave  and  license 
to  undertake  the  discovery  of  the  philosopher's  stone, 
4  to  the  great  benefit  of  the  realm,  and  the  enabling 
the  King  to  pay  all  the  debts  of  the  Crown  in  real 
gold  and  silver.'  On  the  remarkable  fact  that  these 
patents  were  issued  to  ecclesiastics  as  well  as  laymen, 
Prynne  afterwards  remarked,  with  true  theological 
acridity,  that  they  were  so  included  because  they 
were  '  such  good  artists  in  transubstantiating  bread 
and  wine  in  the  Eucharist,  and  were,  therefore,  the 
more  likely  to  be  able  to  effect  the  transmutation  of 


CHAP.   I.]  ROGER   BACON.  29 

base  metals  into  better.'  Nothing  came  of  the 
patents.  The  practical  common-sense  of  Englishmen 
never  took  very  kindly  to  the  alchemical  delusion, 
and  Chaucer  very  faithfully  describes  the  contempt 
with  which  it  was  generally  regarded.  Enthusiasts 
there  were,  no  doubt,  who  firmly  believed  in  it,  and 
knaves  who  made  a  profit  out  of  it,  and  dupes  who 
were  preyed  upon  by  the  knaves ;  and  so  it  languished 
on  through  the  sixteenth  and  seventeenth  centuries. 
It  seems  at  one  time  to  have  amused  the  shrewd 
intellect  of  Queen  Elizabeth,  and  at  another  to  have 
caught  the  volatile  fancy  of  the  second  Villiers,  Duke 
of  Buckingham.  But  alchemy  was,  in  the  main,  the 
modus  vivendi  of  quacks  and  cheats,  of  such  im- 
postors as  Ben  Jonson  has  drawn  so  powerfully  in  his 
great  comedy — a  Subtle,  a  Face,  and  a  Doll  Common, 
who,  in  the  Sir  Epicure  Mammons  of  the  time,  found 
their  appropriate  victims.  These  creatures  played 
on  the  greed  and  credulity  of  their  dupes  with  suc- 
cessful audacity,  and  excited  their  imaginations  by 
extravagant  promises.  Thus,  Ben  Jon  son's  hero  runs 
riot  with  glowing  anticipations  of  what  the  alchemical 
magisterium  can  effect. 

*  Do  you  think  I  fable  with  you  1    I  assure  you, 
He  that  has  once  the  flower  of  the  sun, 
The  perfect  ruby,  which  we  call  Elixir, 
Not  only  can  do  that,  but,  by  its  virtue, 
Can  confer  honour,  love,  respect,  long  life  ; 
Give  safety,  valour,  yes,  and  victory, 
To  whom  he  will.     In  eight-and-twenty  days 
I'll  make  an  old  man  of  fourscore  a  child.  .  .  . 

'Tis  the  secret 
Of  nature  naturized  'gainst  all  infections, 


30  WITCH,    WARLOCK,    AND    MAGICIAN.      [BOOK   I. 

Cures  all  diseases  coining  of  all  causes  ; 

A  month's  grief  in  a  day,  a  year's  in  twelve, 

And  of  what  age  soever  in  a  month.' 

The  English  alchemists,  however,  with  a  few  ex- 
ceptions, depended  for  a  livelihood  chiefly  on  their 
1  sale  of  magic  charms,  love-philters,  and  even  more 
'  dangerous    potions,    and    on   horoscope- casting,    and 
for  tune -telling  by  the  hand  or  by  cards.     They  acted, 
i  also,  as  agents  in  many  a  dark  intrigue  and  unlawful 
project,  being  generally  at  the  disposal  of  the  highest 
bidder,  and  seldom  shrinking  from  any  crime. 

The  earliest  name  of  note  on  the  roll  of  the  English 
magicians,  necromancers  and  alchemists  is  that  of 

KOGEK   BACON. 

This  great  man  has  some  claim  to  be  considered  the 
father  of  experimental  philosophy,  since  it  was  he 
who  first  laid  down  the  principles  upon  which  phy- 
sical investigation  should  be  conducted.  Speaking 
of  science,  he  says,  in  language  far  in  advance  of  his 
times  :  c  There  are  two  modes  of  knowing — by  argu- 
ment and  by  experiment.  Argument  winds  up  a 
question,  but  does  not  lead  us  to  acquiesce  in,  or  feel 
certain  of,  the  contemplation  of  truth,  unless  the 
truth  be  proved  and  confirmed  by  experience.'  To 
Experimental  Science  he  ascribed  three  differentiating 
characters  :  l  First,  she  tests  by  experiment  the  grand 
conclusions  of  all  other  sciences.  Next,  she  discovers, 
with  reference  to  the  ideas  connected  with  other 
sciences,  splendid  truths,  to  which  these  sciences 
without  assistance  are  unable  to  attain.  Her  third 
prerogative  is,  that,  unaided  by  the  other  sciences, 


CHAP.   I.]  ROGER    BACON.  31 

and  of  herself,  she  can  investigate  the  secrets  of 
nature/  These  truths,  now  accepted  as  trite  and 
self-evident,  ranked,  in  Roger  Bacon's  day,  as  novel 
and  important  discoveries. 

He  was  born  at  Ilchester,  in  Somersetshire,  in  1214. 
Of  his  lineage,  parentage,  and  early  education  we 
know  nothing,  except  that  he  must  have  been  very 
young  when  he  went  to  Oxford,  for  he  took  orders 
there  before  he  was  twenty.  Joining  the  Franciscan 
brotherhood,  he  applied  himself  to  the  study  of 
Greek,  Latin,  Hebrew,  and  Arabic  ;  but  his  genius 
chiefly  inclined  towards  the  pursuit  of  the  natural 
sciences,  in  which  he  obtained  such  a  mastery  that 
his  contemporaries  accorded  to  him  the  flattering 
title  of  '  The  Admirable  Doctor/  His  lectures 
gathered  round  him  a  crowd  of  admiring  disciples  ; 
until  the  boldness  of  their  speculations  aroused  the 
suspicion  of  the  ecclesiastical  authorities,  and  in  1257 
they  were  prohibited  by  the  General  of  his  Order. 
Then  Pope  Innocent  IV.  interfered,  interdicting  him 
from  the  publication  of  his  writings,  and  placing  him 
under  close  supervision.  He  remained  in  this  state 
of  tutelage  until  Clement  IV.,  a  man  of  more  liberal 
views,  assumed  the  triple  tiara,  who  not  only  released 
him  from  his  irksome  restraints,  but  desired  him  to 
compose  a  treatise  on  the  sciences.  This  was  the  origin 
of  Bacon's  '  Opus  Majus,'  '  Opus  Minus '  and  i  Opus 
Tertius,'  which  he  completed  in  a  year  and  a  half,  and 
despatched  to  Rome.  In  1267  he  was  allowed  to 
return  to  Oxford,  where  he  wrote  his  '  Compendium 
Studii  Philosophise.'  His  vigorous  advocacy  of  new 


32  WITCH,    WARLOCK,    AND    MAGICIAN.      [BOOK  I. 

methods  of  scientific  investigation,  or,  perhaps,  his 
unsparing  exposure  of  the  ignorance  and  vices  of  the 
monks  and  the  clergy,  again  brought  down  upon  him 
the  heavy  arm  of  the  ecclesiastical  tyranny.  His 
works  were  condemned  by  the  General  of  his  Order, 
and  in  1278,  during  the  pontificate  of  Nicholas  III., 
he  was  thrown  into  prison,  where  he  was  detained  for 
several  years.  It  is  said  that  he  was  not  released 
until  1292,  the  year  in  which  he  published  his  latest 
production,  the  '  Compendium  Studii  Theologiae.' 
Two  years  afterwards  he  died. 

In  many  respects  Bacon  was  greatly  in  advance  of 
his  contemporaries,  but  his  general  repute  ignores  his 
real  and  important  services  to  philosophy,  and  builds 
up  a  glittering  fabric  upon  mechanical  discoveries  and 
inventions  to  which,  it  is  to  be  feared,  he  cannot  lay 
claim.  As  Professor  Adamson  puts  it,  he  certainly 
describes  a  method  of  constructing  a  telescope,  but 
not  so  as  to  justify  the  conclusion  that  he  himself 
was  in  possession  of  that  instrument.  The  invention 
of  gunpowder  has  been  attributed  to  him  on  the 
strength  of  a  passage  in  one  of  his  works,  which,  if 
fairly  interpreted,  disposes  at  once  of  the  pretension  ; 
besides,  it  was  already  known  to  the  Arabs.  Burning- 
glasses  were  in  common'  use  ;  and  there  is  no  proof 
that  he  made  spectacles,  although  he  was  probably 
acquainted  with  the  principle  of  their  construction. 
It  is  not  to  be  denied,  however,  that  in  his  interesting 
treatise  on  '  The  Secrets  of  Nature  and  Art,'*  he  ex- 

*  Epistola  Fratris  Rogerii  Baconis  de  Secretis  Operibus  Artis  et 
Naturae  et  de  Nullitate  Magiae. 


CHAP.   I.]  ROGER    BACON.  33 

hibits  every  sign  of  a  far-seeing  and  lively  intelligence, 
and  foreshadows  the  possibility  of  some  of  our  great 
modern  inventions.  But,  like  so  many  master-minds 
of  the  Middle  Ages,  he  was  unable  wholly  to  resist 
the  fascinations  of  alchemy  and  astrology.  He  believed 
that  various  parts  of  the  human  body  were  influenced 
by  the  stars,  and  that  the  mind  was  thus  stimulated 
to  particular  acts,  without  any  relaxation  or  inter- 
ruption of  free  will.  His  '  Mirror  of  Alchemy,'  of 
which  a  translation  into  French  was  executed  by  '  a 
Gentleman  of  Dauphine/  and  printed  in  1507,  abso- 
lutely bristles  with  crude  and  unfounded  theories — as, 
for  instance,  that  Nature,  in  the  formation  of  metallic 
veins,  tends  constantly  to  the  production  of  gold,  but 
is  impeded  by  various  accidents,  and  in  this  way 
creates  metals  in  which  impurities  mingle  with  the 
fundamental  substances.  The  main  elements,  he  says, 
are  quicksilver  and  sulphur  ;  and  from  these  all 
metals  and  minerals  are  compounded.  Gold  he  de- 
scribes as  a  perfect  metal,  produced  from  a  pure, 
fixed,  clear,  and  red  quicksilver ;  and  from  a  sulphur 
also  pure,  fixed,  and  red,  not  incandescent  and  un- 
alloyed. Iron  is  unclean  and  imperfect,  because 
engendered  of  a  quicksilver  which  is  impure,  too 
much  congealed,  earthy,  incandescent,  white  and  red, 
and  of  a  similar  variety  of  sulphur.  The  '  stone/  or 
substance,  by  which  the  transmutation  of  the  imper- 
fect into  the  perfect  metals  was  to  be  effected  must  be 
made,  in  the  main,  he  said,  of  sulphur  and  mercury. 

It  is  not  easy  to  determine  how  soon  an  atmosphere 
of  legend  gathered  around  the  figure  of  'the  Admirable 

3 


34  WITCH,  WARLOCK,  AND  MAGICIAN.        [BOOK  I. 

Doctor ;'  but  undoubtedly  it  originated  quite  as  much 
in  his  astrological  errors  as  in  his  scientific  experi- 
ments. Some  of  the  myths  of  which  he  is  the  tradi- 
tional hero  belong  to  a  very  much  earlier  period,  as,  for 
instance,  that  of  his  Brazen  Head,  which  appears  in  the 
old  romance  of '  Valentine  and  Orson,'  as  well  as  in 
the  history  of  Albertus  Magnus.  Gower,  too,  in  his 
'  Confessio  Amantis,'  relates  how  a  Brazen  Head  was 
fabricated  by  Bishop  Grosseteste.  It  was  customary 
in  those  days  to  ascribe  all  kinds  of  marvels  to  men 
who  obtained  a  repute  for  exceptional  learning,  and 
Bishop  Grosseteste's  Brazen  Head  was  as  purely  a 
fiction  as  Roger  Bacon's.  This  is  Gower's  account  : 

'  For  of  the  grete  clerk  Grostest 
I  rede  how  busy  that  he  was 
Upon  the  clergie  an  head  of  brass 
To  forge  ;  and  make  it  fortelle 
Of  suche  thinges  as  befelle. 
And  seven  yeres  besinesse 
He  laide,  but  for  the  lachesse* 
Of  half  a  minute  of  an  hour  .  .  . 
He  loste  all  that  he  hadde  do.' 

Stow  tells  a  story  of  a  Head  of  Clay,  made  at 
Oxford  in  the  reign  of  Edward  II.,  which,  at  an 
appointed  time,  spoke  the  mysterious  words,  '  Caput 
decidetur — caput  elevabitur.  Pedes  elevabuntur  supra 
caput.'  Returning  to  Roger  Bacon's  supposed  in- 
vention, we  find  an  ingenious  though  improbable 
explanation  suggested  by  Sir  Thomas  Browne,  in  his 
'  Vulgar  Errors ' : 

*  Every  one,'  he  says,  '  is  filled  with  the  story  of  Friar  Bacon, 
that  made  a  Brazen  Head  to  speak  these  words,  "  Time  is." 

*  Laches,  oversight. 


CHAP.   I.]  ROGER    BACON.  35 

Which,  though  there  went  not  the  like  relations,  is  surely  too 
literally  received,  and  was  but  a  mystical  fable  concerning  the 
philosopher's  great  work,  wherein  he  eminently  laboured :  imply- 
ing no  more  by  the  copper  head,  than  the  vessel  wherein  it  was 
wrought ;  and  by  the  words  it  spake,  than  the  opportunity  to  be 
watched,  about  the  tempus  ortus,  or  birth  of  the  magical  child,  or 
"  philosophical  King"  of  Lullius.  the  rising  of  the  "terra  foliata" 
of  Arnoldus ;  when  the  earth,  sufficiently  impregnated  with  the 
water,  ascendeth  white  and  splendent.  Which  riot  observed,  the 
work  is  irrecoverably  lost.  .  .  .  Now  letting  slip  the  critical 
opportunity,  he  missed  the  intended  treasure  :  which  had  he 
obtained,  he  might  have  made  out  the  tradition  of  making  a 
brazen  wall  about  England  :  that  is,  the  most  powerful  defence  or 
strongest  fortification  which  gold  could  have  effected.' 

An  interpretation  of  the  popular  myth  which  is 
about  as  ingenious  and  far-fetched  as  Lord  Bacon's 
expositions  of  the  '  Fables  of  the  Ancients,'  of  which 
it  may  be  said  that  they  possess  every  merit  but  that 
of  probability ! 

Bacon's  Brazen  Head,  however,  took  hold  of  the 
popular  fancy.  It  survived  for  centuries,  and  the 
allusions  to  it  in  our  literature  are  sufficiently 
numerous.  Cob,  in  Ben  Jonson's  comedy  of  '  Every 
Man  in  his  Humour,'  exclaims  :  '  Oh,  an  my  house 
were  the  Brazen  Head  now!  'Faith,  it  would  e'en 
speak  Mo  fools  yet /'  And  we  read  in  Greene's  *  Tu 

Quoque ' : 

'  Look  to  yourself,  sir  ; 
The  brazen  head  has  spoke,  and  I  must  have  you.' 

Lord  Bacon  used  it  happily  in  his  '  Apology  to  the 
Queen/  when  Elizabeth  would  have  punished  the 
Earl  of  Essex  for  his  misconduct  in  Ireland : — 
'  Whereunto  I  said  (to  the  end  utterly  to  divert  her), 
"  Madam,  if  you  will  have  me  speak  to  you  in  this 

3—2 


36  WITCH,  WARLOCK,  AND  MAGICIAN.        [BOOK  I. 

argument,  I  must  speak  to  you  as  Friar  Bacon's  head 
spake,  that  said  first,  '  Time  is,'  and  then,  '  Time  was] 
and  c  Time  would  never  be'  for  certainly  "  (said  I)  "it 
is  now  far  too  late  ;  the  matter  is  cold,  and  hath 
taken  too  much  wind."  Butler  introduces  it  in  his 
'  Hudibras '  : — '  Quoth  he,  "  My  head's  not  made  of 
brass,  as  Friar  Bacon's  noddle  was."  And  Pope,  in 
4  The  Dunciad,'  writes  : — '  Bacon  trembled  for  his 
brazen  head.'  A  William  Terite,  in  1604,  gave  to 
the  world  some  verse,  entitled  c  A  Piece  of  Friar 
Bacon's  Brazen-head's  Prophecie.'  And,  in  our  own 
time,  William  Blackworth  Praed  has  written  '  The 
Chaunt  of  the  Brazen  Head,'  which,  in  his  prose 
motto,  he  (in  the  person  of  Friar  Bacon)  addresses 
as  '  the  brazen  companion  of  his  solitary  hours.' 

'THE  FAMOUS  HISTORIE  OF  FRIAR  BACON.' 

Towards  the  end  of  the  sixteenth  century,  the 
various  legends  which  had  taken  Friar  Bacon  as  their 
central  figure  were  brought  together  in  a  connected 
form,  and  wrought,  along  with  other  stories  of  magic 
and  sorcer}^  into  a  continuous  narrative,  which 
became  immensely  popular.  It  was  entitled,  '  The 
Famous  Historic  of  Friar  Bacon  :  Conteyning  the 
Wonderful  Thinges  that  he  Did  in  his  Life  ;  also  the 
Manner  of  his  Death  ;  with  the  Lives  and  Deaths  of 
the  Two  Conjurers,  Bungye  and  Vandermast,'  and  has 
been  reprinted  by  Mr.  Thorns,  in  his  '  Early  English 
Romances.' 

• '  According  to  this  entertaining  authority,  the  Friar 
was  '  born  in  the  West  part  of  England,   and  was 


CHAP.   I.]  HISTOEY    OF    FKIAR    BACON.  37 

sonne  to  a  wealthy  farmer,  who  put  him  to  the  schoole 
to  the  parson  of  the  towne  where  he  was  borne  ;  not 
with  intent  that  hee  should  turne  fryer  (as  hee  did), 
but  to  get  so  much  understanding,  that  he  might 
manage  the  better  the  wealth  hee  was  to  leave  him. 
But  young  Bacon  took  his  learning  so  fast,  that  the 
priest  could  not  teach  him  any  more,  which  made  him 
desire  his  master  that  he  would  speake  to  his  father 
to  put  him  to  Oxford,  that  he  might  not  lose  that 
little  learning  that  he  had  gained.  .  .  .  The  father 
aifected  to  doubt  his  son's  capacity,  and  designed  him 
still  to  follow  the  same  calling  as  himself ;  but  the 
student  had  no  inclination  to  drive  fat  oxen  or  consort 
with  unlettered  hinds,  and  stole  away  to  "a  cloister" 
some  twenty  miles  off,  where  the  monks  cordially 
welcomed  him.  Continuing  the  pursuit  of  knowledge 
with  great  avidity,  he  attained  to  such  repute  that  the 
authorities  of  Oxford  University  invited  him  to  repair 
thither.  He  accepted  the  invitation,  and  grew  so 
excellent  in  the  secrets  of  Art  and  Nature,  that  not 
England  only,  but  all  Christendom,  admired  him.' 

There,  in  the  seclusion  of  his  cell,  he  made  the 
Brazen  Head  on  which  rests  his  legendary  fame. 

'Heading  one  day  of  the  many  conquests  of  England,  he 
bethought  himselfe  how  he  might  keepe  it  hereafter  from  the 
like  conquests,  and  so  make  himselfe  famous  hereafter  to  all 
posterities.  This,  after  great  study,  hee  found  could  be  no  way 
so  well  done  as  one ;  which  was  to  make  a  head  of  brasse,  and  if 
he  could  make  this  head  to  speake,  and  heare  it  when  it  speakes, 
then  might  hee  be  able  to  wall  all  England  about  with  brasse.* 

*  This  patriotic  sentiment  would  seem  to  show  that  the  book 
was  written  or  published  about  the  time  of  the  Spanish  Armada. 


38  WITCH,  WARLOCK,  AND  MAGICIAN.        [BOOK  I. 

To  this  purpose  he  got  one  Fryer  Bungey  to  assist  him,  who  was 
a  great  scholar  and  a  magician,  but  not  to  bee  compared  to 
Fryer  Bacon  :  these  two  with  great  study  and  paines  so  framed  a 
head  of  brasse,  that  in  the  inward  parts  thereof  there  was  all 
things  like  as  in  a  naturall  man's  head.  This  being  done,  they 
were  as  farre  from  perfection  of  the  worke  as  they  were  before? 
for  they  knew  not  how  to  give  those  parts  that  they  had  made 
motion,  without  which  it  was  impossible  that  it  should  speake  : 
many  bookes  they  read,  but  yet  coulde  not  finde  out  any  hope  of 
what  they  sought,  that  at  the  last  they  concluded  to  raise  a  spirit, 
and  to  know  of  him  that  which  they  coulde  not  attaine  to  by 
their  owne  studies.  To  do  this  they  prepared  all  things  ready, 
and  went  one  evening  to  a  wood  thereby,  and  after  many  cere- 
monies used,  they  spake  the  words  of  conjuration ;  which  the 
Devill  straight  obeyed,  and  appeared  unto  them,  asking  what 
they  would  1  "  Know,"  said  Fryer  Bacon,  "  that  wee  have  made 
an  artificiall  head  of  brasse,  which  we  would  have  to  speake,  to 
the  furtherance  of  which  wee  have  raised  thee ;  and  being  raised, 
wee  will  here  keepe  thee,  unlesse  thou  tell  to  us  the  way  and 
manner  how  to  make  this  head  to  speake."  The  Devill  told  him 
that  he  had  not  that  power  of  himselfe.  "Beginner  of  lyes,"  said 
Fryer  Bacon,  "  I  know  that  thou  dost  dissemble,  and  therefore 
tell  it  us  quickly,  or  else  wee  will  here  bind  thee  to  remaine 
during  our  pleasures."  At  these  threatenings  the  Devill  con- 
sented to  doe  it,  and  told  them,  that  with  a  continual  fume  of 
the  six  hottest  simples  it  should  have  motion,  and  in  one  month 
space  speak  ;  the  time  of  the  moneth  or  day  hee  knew  not :  also 
hee  told  them,  that  if  they  heard  it  not  before  it  had  done  speak- 
ing, all  their  labour  should  be  lost.  They  being  satisfied,  licensed 
the  spirit  for  to  depart. 

'Then  went  these  two  learned  fryers  home  againe,  and  pre- 
pared the  simples  ready,  and  made  the  fume,  and  with  continuall 
watching  attended  when  this  Brazen  Head  would  speake.  Thus 
watched  they  for  three  weekes  without  any  rest,  so  that  they  were 
so  weary  and  sleepy  that  they  could  not  any  longer  refraine  from 
rest.  Then  called  Fryer  Bacon  his  man  Miles,  and  told  him  that 
it  was  not  unknown  to  him  what  paines  Fryer  Bungey  and 
himselfe  had  taken  for  three  weekes  space,  onely  to  make  and  to 
heare  the  Brazen  Head  speake,  which  if  they  did  not,  then  had 
they  lost  all  their  labour,  and  all  England  had  a  great  losse 
thereby ;  therefore  hee  intreated  Miles  that  he  would  watch 


CHAP.  I.]  HISTORY    OF    FRIAR    BACON.  39 

whilst  that  they  slept,  and  call  them  if  the  head  speake.  "  Fear 
not,  good  master,"  said  Miles,  "  I  will  not  sleepe,  but  harken  and 
attend  upon  the  head,  and  if  it  doe  chance  to  speake,  I  will  call 
you ;  therefore  I  pray  take  you  both  your  rests  and  let  mee  alone 
for  watching  this  head."  After  Fryer  Bacon  had  given  him  a 
great  charge  the  second  time,  Fryer  Bungey  and  he  went  to 
sleepe,  and  Miles  was  lefte  alone  to  watch  the  Brazen  Head. 
Miles,  to  keepe  him  from  sleeping,  got  a  tabor  and  pipe,  and 
being  merry  disposed,  with  his  owne  musicke  kept  from  sleeping 
at  last.  After  some  noyse  the  head  spake  these  two  words, 
"TiME  IS."  Miles,  hearing  it  to  speake  no  more,  thought  his 
master  would  be  angry  if  hee  waked  him  for  that,  and  therefore 
he  let  them  both  sleepe,  and  began  to  mocke  the  head  in  this 
manner :  "  Thou  brazen-faced  Head,  hath  my  master  tooke  all 
these  paines  about  thee,  and  now  dost  thou  requite  him  with  two 
words,  TIME  is?  Had  hee  watched  with  a  lawyer  so  long  as 
hee  hath  watched  with  thee,  he  would  have  given  him  more  and 
better  words  than  thou  hast  yet.  If  thou  canst  speake  no  wisers 
they  shal  sleepe  till  doomes  day  for  me  :  TIME  is  !  I  know  Time 
is,  and  that  you  shall  heare,  Goodman  Brazen-face. 

*  "  Time  is  for  some  to  eate, 

Time  is  for  some  to  sleepe, 
Time  is  for  some  to  laugh, 

Time  is  for  some  to  weepe. 
'  "  Time  is  for  some  to  sing, 

Time  is  for  some  to  pray, 
Time  is  for  some  to  creepe, 

That  have  drunken  all  the  day. 

'  "  Do  you  tell  us,  copper-nose,  when  TIME  IS  ?  I  hope  we 
schollers  know  our  times,  when  to  drink  drunke,  when  to  kiss 
our  hostess,  when  to  goe  on  her  score,  and  when  to  pay  it — that 
time  comes  seldome."  After  halfe  an  houre  had  passed,  the 
Head  did  speake  againe,  two  words,  which  were  these,  "TiME 
WAS."  Miles  respected  these  words  as  little  as  he  did  the  former, 
and  would  not  wake  them,  but  still  scoffed  at  the  Brazen  Head 
that  it  had  learned  no  better  words,  and  have  such  a  tutor  as  his 
master  :  and  in  scorne  of  it  sung  this  song  : 

*  "  Time  was  when  thou,  a  kettle, 

wert  filled  with  better  matter ; 
But  Fryer  Bacon  did  thee  spoyle 
when  he  thy  sides  did  batter. 


40  WITCH,  WARLOCK,  AND  MAGICIAN.        [BOOK  I. 

'  "  Time  was  when  conscience  dwelled 

with  men  of  occupation  ;; 
Time  was  when  lawyers  did  not  thrive 
so  well  by  men's  vexation. 

'  "  Time  was  when  kings  and  beggars 

of  one  poore  stuff  had  being  ; 
Time  was  when  office  kept  no  knaves — 
that  time  it  was  worth  seeing. 

'  "  Time  was  a  bowle  of  water 

did  give  the  face  reflection  ; 
Time  was  when  women  knew  no  paint, 
which  now  they  call  complexion. 

* "  TIME  WAS  !  I  know  that,  brazen-face,  without  your  telling ; 
I  know  Time  was,  and  I  know  what  things  there  was  when  Time 
was  ;  and  if  you  speake  no  wiser,  no  master  shall  be  waked  for 
mee."  Thus  Miles  talked  and  sung  till  another  halfe-houre  was 
gone  :  then  the  Brazen  Head  spake  again  these  words,  "  TIME  is 
PAST ;"  and  therewith  fell  downe,  and  presently  followed  a 
terrible  noyse,  with  strange  flashes  of  fire,  so  that  Miles  was  halfe 
dead  with  feare.  At  this  noyse  the  two  Fryers  awaked,  and 
wondred  to  see  the  whole  roome  so  full  of  smoake ;  but  that 
being  vanished,  they  might  perceive  the  Brazen  Head  broken 
and  lying  on  the  ground.  At  this  sight  they  grieved,  and  called 
Miles  to  know  how  this  came.  Miles,  halfe  dead  with  feare, 
said  that  it  fell  doune  of  itselfe,  and  that  with  the  noyse  and  fire 
that  followed  he  was  almost  frighted  out  of  his  wits.  Fryer  Bacon 
asked  him  if  hee  did  not  speake  1  "Yes,"  quoth  Miles,  "it  spake, 
but  to  no  purpose  :  He  have  a  parret  speake  better  in  that  time 
that  you  have  been  teaching  this  Brazen  Head." 

'  "  Out  on  thee,  villaine  !"  said  Fryer  Bacon ;  "  thou  hast  undone 
us  both  :  hadst  thou  but  called  us  when  it  did  speake,  all  England 
had  been  walled  round  about  with  brasse,  to  its  glory  and  our 
eternal  fames.  What  were  the  words  it  spake  ?"  "  Very  few," 
said  Miles,  "  and  those  were  none  of  the  wisest  that  I  have  heard 
neither.  First  he  said, '  TIME  is.'  "  "  Hadst  thou  called  us  then," 
said  Fryer  Bacon,  "  we  had  been  made  for  ever."  "  Then,"  said 
Miles,  "  half-an-hour  after  it  spake  againe,  and  said,  '  TIME  WAS.'  " 
"And  wouldst  thou  not  call  us  then?"  said  Bungey.  "Alas!'' 
said  Miles,  "  I  thought  hee  would  have  told  me  some  long  tale, 
and  then  I  purposed  to  have  called  you  :  then  half-an-houre  after 


CHAP.   I.]  HISTORY    OF    FRIAR    BACON.  41 

he  cried,  '  TIME  is  PAST,'  and  made  such  a  noyse  that  hee  hath 
waked  you  himselfe,  mee  thinkes."  At  this  Fryer  Bacon  was  in 
such  a  rage  that  hee  would  have  beaten  his  man,  but  he  was 
restrained  by  Bungey :  but  neverthelesse,  for  his  punishment,  he 
with  his  art  struck  him  dumbe  for  one  whole  month's  space. 
Thus  the  greate  worke  of  these  learned  fryers  was  overthrown,  to 
their  great  grief es,  by  this  simple  fellow.' 

The  historian  goes  on  to  relate  many  instances  of 
Friar  Bacon's  thaumaturgical  powers.  He  captures 
a  town  which  the  king  had  besieged  for  three  months 
without  success.  He  puts  to  shame  a  German  con- 
juror named  Vandermast,  and  he  performs  wonders 
in  love  affairs  ;  but  at  length  a  fatal  result  to  one  of 
his  magical  exploits  induces  him  to  break  to  pieces 
his  wonderful  glass  and  doff  his  conjurer's  robe. 
Then,  receiving  intelligence  of  the  deaths  of  Vander- 
mast and  Friar  Bungey,  he  falls  into  a  deep  grief, 
so  that  for  three  days  he  refuses  to  partake  of  food, 
and  keeps  his  chamber. 

1  In  the  time  that  Fryer  Bacon  kept  his  Chamber,  hee  fell  into 
divers  meditations  ;  sometimes  into  the  vanity  of  Arts  and 
Sciences  j  then  would  he  condemne  himselfe  for  studying  of 
those  things  that  were  so  contrary  to  his  Order  soules  health ; 
and  would  say,  That  magicke  made  a  man  a  Devill :  sometimes 
would  hee  meditate  on  divinity ;  then  would  hee  cry  out  upon 
himselfe  for  neglecting  the  study  of  it,  and  for  studying  magicke  : 
sometime  would  he  meditate  on  the  shortnesse  of  mans  life,  then 
would  he  condemne  himselfe  for  spending  a  time  so  short,  so  ill  as 
he  had  done  his  :  so  would  he  goe  from  one  thing  to  another,  and 
in  all  condemne  his  former  studies.' 

1  And  that  the  world  should  know  how  truly  he  did  repent  his 
wicked  life,  he  caused  to  be  made  a  great  fire  ;  and  sending  for 
many  of  his  friends,  schollers,  and  others,  he  spake  to  them  after 
this  manner  :  My  good  friends  and  fellow  students,  it  is  not 
unknown  to  you,  how  that  through  my  Art  I  have  attained  to 
that  credit,  that  few  men  living  ever  had :  of  the  wonders  that  I 


42  WITCH,  WARLOCK,   AND  MAGICIAN.        [BOOK  I. 

have  done,  all  England  can  speak,  both  King  and  Commons  :  I 
have  unlocked  the  secrets  of  Art  and  Nature,  and  let  the  world 
see  those  things  that  have  lay  en  hid  since  the  death  of  Hermes,* 
that  rare  and  profound  philosopher  :  my  studies  have  found  the 
secrets  of  the  Starres ;  the  bookes  that  I  have  made  of  them  do 
serve  for  precedents  to  our  greatest  Doctors,  so  excellent  hath  my 
judgment  been  therein.  I  likewise  have  found  out  the  secrets  of 
Trees,  Plants,  and  Stones,  with  their  several  uses  ;  yet  all  this 
knowledge  of  mine  I  esteeme  so  lightly,  that  I  wish  that  I  were 
ignorant  and  knew  nothing,  for  the  knowledge  of  these  things  (as 
I  have  truly  found)  serveth  not  to  better  a  man  in  goodnesse,  but 
onely  to  make  him  proude  and  thinke  too  well  of  himselfe.  What 
hath  all  my  knowledge  of  Nature's  secrets  gained  me  1  Onely 
this,  the  losse  of  a  better  knowledge,  the  losse  of  Divine  Studies, 
which  makes  the  immortal  part  of  man  (his  soule)  blessed.  I  have 
found  that  my  knowledge  has  beene  a  heavy  burden,  and  has  kept 
downe  my  good  thoughts ;  but  I  will  remove  the  cause,  which  are 
these  Bookes,  which  I  doe  purpose  here  before  you  all  to  burne. 
They  all  intreated  him  to  spare  the  bookes,  because  in  them  there 
were  those  things  that  after-ages  might  receive  great  benefit  by. 
He  would  not  hearken  unto  them,  but  threw  them  all  into  the 
fire,  and  in  that  flame  burnt  the  greatest  learning  in  the  world. 
Then  did  he  dispose  of  all  his  goods ;  some  part  he  gave  to  poor 
schollers,  and  some  he  gave  to  other  poore  folkes  :  nothing  left  he 
for  himselfe  :  then  caused  hee  to  be  made  in  the  Church-Wall  a 
Cell,  where  he  locked  himselfe  in,  and  there  remained  till  his 
Death.  His  time  hee  spent  in  prayer,  meditation,  and  such  Divine 
exercises,  and  did  seeke  by  all  means  to  perswade  men  from  the 
study  of  Magicke.  Thus  lived  hee  some  two  years  space  in  that 

*  Hermes  Trismegistus  ('thrice  great'),  a  fabulous  Chaldean 
philosopher,  to  whom  I  have  already  made  reference.  The 
numerous  writings  which  bear  his  name  were  really  composed  by 
the  Egyptian  Platonists ;  but  the  mediaeval  alchemists  pretend  to 
recognise  in  him  the  founder  of  their  art.  Gower,  in  his  '  Con- 
fessio  Amantis,'  says : 

'  Of  whom  if  I  the  names  calle, 
Hermes  was  one  the  first  of  alle, 
To  whom  this  Art  is  most  applied.' 

The  name  of  Hermes  was  chosen  because  of  the  supposed  magical 
powers  of  the  god  of  the  caduceus. 


CHAP.  I.]  HISTORY    OF    FRIAR   BACON.  43 

Cell,  never  comming  forth  :  his  meat  and  drink  he  received  in  at 
a  window,  and  at  that  window  he  had  discourse  with  those  that 
came  to  him ;  his  grave  he  digged  with  his  owne  nayles,  and  was 
there  layed  when  he  dyed.  Thus  was  the  Life  and  Death  of  this 
famous  Fryer,  who  lived  most  part  of  his  life  a  Magician,  and 
dyed  a  true  Penitent  Sinner  and  Anchorite.' 

Upon  this  popular  romance  Greene,  one  of  the  best 
of  the  second-class  Elizabethan  dramatists,  founded 
his  rattling  comedy,  entitled  *  The  Historye  of  Fryer 
Bacon  and  Fryer  Bungay,'  which  was  written,  it 
would  seem,  in  1589,  first  acted  about  1592,  and 
published  in  1594.  He  does  not  servilely  follow  the 
old  story-book,  but  introduces  an  under-plot  of  his 
own,  in  which  is  shown  the  love  of  Prince  Edward 
for  Margaret,  the  '  Fair  Maid  of  Fressingfield/  whom 
the  Prince  finally  surrenders  to  the  man  she  loves, 
his  favourite  and  friend,  Lacy,  Earl  of  Lincoln. 

GREENE'S  COMEDY. 

In  Scene  I.,  which  takes  place  near  Framlingham, 
in  Suffolk,  we  find  Prince  Edward  eloquently  expa- 
tiating on  the  charms  of  the  Fair  Maid  to  an  audience 
f  his  courtiers,  one  of  whom  advises  him,  if  he  would 
prove  successful  in  his  suit,  to  seek  the  assistance  of 
Friar  Bacon,  a  'brave  necromancer,1  who  'can  make 
women  of  devils,  and  juggle  cats  into  coster- 
mongers/*  The  Prince  acts  upon  this  advice. 

Scene  II.  introduces  us  to  Friar  Bacon's  cell  at 

Brasenose  College,  Oxford  (an  obvious  anachronism, 

as  the  college  was  not  founded  until  long  after  Bacon's 

time).      Enter  Bacon  and   his    poor    scholar,    Miles, 

*  That  is,  costard,  or  apple,  mongers. 


44  WITCH,  WARLOCK,  AND  MAGICIAN.        [BOOK  I. 

with  books  under  his   arm  ;    also   three   doctors    of 
Oxford  :  Burden,  Mason,  and  Clement. 

BACON.  Miles,  where  are  you? 

MILES.  Hie  sum,  doctissime  et  reverendissime  Doctor.  (Here  I  am, 
most  learned  and  reverend  Doctor.) 

BACON.  Attulisti  nostros  libros  meos  de  necromantia  ?  (Hast  thou 
brought  my  books  of  necromancy  1) 

MILES.  Ecce  quam  bonum  et  quam  jucundum  habitare  libros  in 
unum  !  (See  how  good  and  how  pleasant  it  is  to  dwell  among 
books  together  !) 

BACON.  Now,  masters  of  our  academic  state 
That  rule  in  Oxford,  viceroys  in  your  place, 
Whose  heads  contain  maps  of  the  liberal  arts, 
Spending  your  time  in  depths  of  learned  skill, 
Why  flock  you  thus  to  Bacon's  secret  cell, 
A  friar  newly  stalled  in  Brazen-nose1? 
Say  what's  your  mind,  that  I  may  make  reply. 

BURDEN.  Bacon,  we  hear  that  long  we  have  suspect, 
That  thou  art  read  in  Magic's  mystery  : 
In  pyromancy,*  to  divine  by  flames  ; 
To  tell  by  hydromancy,  ebbs  and  tides ; 
By  aeromancy  to  discover  doubts, — 
To  plain  out  questions,  as  Apollo  did. 

BACON.  Well,  Master  Burden,  what  of  all  this  1 
MILES.  Marry,  sir,  he  doth  but  fulfil,  by  rehearsing  of  these 
names,  the  fable  of  the  '  Fox  and  the  Grapes '  :  that  which  is 
above  us  pertains  nothing  to  us. 

BURD.  I  tell  thee,  Bacon,  Oxford  makes  report, 
Nay,  England,  and  the  Court  of  Henry  says 
Thou'rt  making  of  a  Brazen  Head  by  art, 
Which  shall  unfold  strange  doubts  and  aphorisms, 
And  read  a  lecture  in  philosophy  : 
And,  by  the  help  of  devils  and  ghastly  fiends, 
Thou  mean'st,  ere  many  years  or  days  be  past, 
To  compass  England  with  a  wall  of  brass. 
BACON.  And  what  of  this  ? 

MILES.  What  of  this,  master  !  why,  he  doth  speak  mystically  ; 
for  he  knows,  if  your  skill  fail  to  make  a  Brazen  Head,  yet 

*  See  Appendix  to  the  present  chapter,  p.  58. 


CHAP,  i.]  GREENE'S  COMEDY.  45 

Master  Waters'  strong  ale  will  fit  his  time  to  make  him  have  a 
copper  nose.  .  .  . 

BACON.  Seeing  you  come  as  friends  unto  the  friar, 
Resolve  you,  doctors,  Bacon  can  by  books 
Make  storming  Boreas  thunder  from  his  cave, 
And  dim  fair  Luna  to  a  dark  eclipse. 
The  great  arch-ruler,  potentate  of  hell, 
Tumbles  when  Bacon  bids  him,  or  his  fiends 
Bow  to  the  force  of  his  pentageron.*.  .  . 
I  have  contrived  and  framed  a  head  of  brass 
(I  made  Belcephon  hammer  out  the  stuff), 
And  that  by  art  shall  read  philosophy  : 
And  I  will  strengthen  England  by  my  skill, 
That  if  ten  Caesars  lived  and  reigned  in  Rome, 
With  all  the  legions  Europe  doth  contain, 
They  should  not  touch  a  grass  of  English  ground  : 
The  work  that  Ninus  reared  at  Babylon, 
The  brazen  walls  framed  by  Semiramis, 
Carved  out  like  to  the  portal  of  the  sun, 
Shall  not  be  such  as  rings  the  English  strand 
From  Dover  to  the  market-place  of  Rye. 

In  this  patriotic  resolution  of  the  potent  friar  the 
reader  will  trace  the  influence  of  the  national  enthu- 
siasm awakened,  only  a  few  years  before  Greene's 
comedy  was  written  and  produced,  by  the  menace  of 
the  Spanish  Armada. 

It  is  unnecessary  to  quote  the  remainder  of  this 
scene,  in  which  Bacon  proves  his  magical  skill  at 
the  expense  of  the  jealous  Burden.  Scene  III. 
passes  at  Harleston  Fair,  and  introduces  Lacy,  Earl 
of  Lincoln,  disguised  as  a  rustic,  and  the  comely 

*  The  pentageron,  or  pentagramma,  is  a  mystic  figure  pro- 
duced by  prolonging  the  sides  of  a  regular  pentagon  till  they 
intersect  one  another.  It  can  be  drawn  without  a  break  in  the 
drawing,  and,  viewed  from  five  sides,  exhibits  the  form  of  the 
letter  A  (pent-alpha),  or  the  figure  of  the  fifth  proposition  in 
Euclid's  First  Book. 


46  WITCH,  WARLOCK,  AND  MAGICIAN.        [BOOK  I. 

Margaret.  In  Scene  IV.,  at  Hampton  Court,  Henry  III. 
receives  Elinor  of  Castile,  who  is  betrothed  to  his  son, 
Prince   Edward,   and  arranges  with    her  father,   the 
Emperor,  a  competition  between  the   great  German 
magician,  Jaques  Vandermast,  and  Friar  Bacon,  '  Eng- 
land's   only   flower/     In    Scene  Y.   we   pass    on    to 
Oxford,  where  some   comic  incidents  occur  between 
Prince  Edward  (in  disguise)  and  his  courtiers  ;  and 
in  Scene  VI.  to  Friar  Bacon's  cell,  where  the  friar 
shows  the  Prince  in  his  '  glass  prospective,'  or  magic 
mirror,  the  figures  of  Margaret,  Friar  Bungay,  and 
Earl  Lacy,  and  reveals  the  progress  of  Lacy's  suit  to 
the  rustic  beauty.      Bacon  summons  Bungay  to  Ox- 
ford— straddling  on  a  devil's  back — and   the    scene 
then  changes  to  the   Regent-house,  and  degenerates 
into  the  rudest  farce.    At  Fressingfield,  in  Scene  VIIL, 
we  find  Prince  Edward  threatening  to  slay  Earl  Lacy 
unless  he  gives  up  to  him  the  Fair  Maid  of  Fressing- 
field ;  but,  after  a  struggle,  his  better  nature  prevails, 
and   he   retires   from   his    suit,  leaving  Margaret  to 
become  the  Countess  of  Lincoln.     Scene  IX.  carries 
us  back  to  Oxford,  where  Henry  III.,  the  Emperor, 
and  a  goodly  company  have  assembled  to  witness  the 
trial  of  skill  between  the  English  and  the  German 
magicians — the    first    international    competition    on 
record! — in  which,  of  course,  Vandermast  is  put  to 
ridicule. 

Passing  over  Scene  X.  as  unimportant,  we  return, 
in  Scene  XL,  to  Bacon's  cell,  where  the  great  magician 
is  lying  on  his  bed,  with  a  white  wand  in  one  hand,  a 
book  in  the  other,  and  beside  him  a  lighted  lamp. 


CHAP,  i.]  GREENE'S  COMEDY.  47 

The  Brazen  Head  is  there,  with  Miles,  armed,  keeping 
watch  over  it.  Here  the  dramatist  closely  follows 
the  old  story.  The  friar  falls  asleep ;  the  head  speaks 
once  and  twice,  and  Miles  fails  to  wake  his  master. 
It  speaks  the  third  time.  '  A  lightning  flashes  forth, 
and  a  hand  appears  that  breaks  down  the  head  with  a 
hammer.'  Bacon  awakes  to  lament  over  the  ruin  of 
his  work,  and  load  the  careless  Miles  with  unavailing 
reproaches.  But  the  whole  scene  is  characteristic 
enough  to  merit  transcription : 

SCENE  XI. — Friar  Bacon's  Cell. 

FRIAR  BACON  is  discovered  lying  on  a  bed,  with  a  white 
stick  in  one  hand,  a  book  in  the  other,  and  a  lamp  lighted 
beside  him;  and  the  BRAZEN  HEAD,  and  MILES  with 
weapons  by  him. 

BACON.  Miles,  where  are  you  ? 

MILES.  Here,  sir. 

BACON.  How  chance  you  tarry  so  long  ? 

MILES.  Think  you  that  the  watching  of  the  Brazen  Head  craves 
no  furniture  ?  I  warrant  you,  sir,  I  have  so  armed  myself  that  if 
all  your  devils  come,  1  will  not  fear  them  an  inch. 

BACON.  Miles, 

Thou  know'st  that  I  have  dived  into  hell, 
And  sought  the  darkest  palaces  of  fiends  ; 
That  with  my  magic  spells  great  Belcephon 
Hath  left  his  lodge  and  kneeled  at  my  cell ; 
The  rafters  of  the  earth  rent  from  the  poles, 
And  three-form'd  Luna  hid  her  silver  looks, 
Tumbling  upon  her  concave  continent, 
When  Bacon  read  upon  his  magic  book. 
With  seven  years'  tossing  necromantic  charms, 
Poring  upon  dark  Hecat's  principles, 
I  have  framed  out  a  monstrous  head  of  brass, 
That,  by  the  enchanting  forces  of  the  devil, 
Shall  tell  out  strange  and  uncouth  aphorisms, 
And  girt  fair  England  with  a  wall  of  brass. 
Bungay  and  I  have  watch'd  these  threescore  days, 


48  WITCH,  WARLOCK,  AND  MAGICIAN.        [BOOK  I. 

And  now  our  vital  spirits  crave  some  rest : 

If  Argus  lived  and  had  his  hundred  eyes, 

They  could  not  over-watch  Phobetor's*  night. 

Now,  Miles,  in  thee  rests  Friar  Bacon's  weal : 

The  honour  and  renown  of  all  his  life 

Hangs  in  the  watching  of  this  Brazen  Head  ; 

Therefore  I  charge  thee  by  the  immortal  God 

That  holds  the  souls  of  men  within  his  fist, 

This  night  thou  watch  ;  for  ere  the  morning  star 

Sends  out  his  glorious  glister  on  the  north 

The  Head  will  speak.     Then,  Miles,  upon  thy  life 

Wake  me  ;  for  then  by  magic  art  I'll  work 

To  end  my  seven  years'  task  with  excellence. 

If  that  a  wink  but  shut  thy  watchful  eye, 

Then  farewell  Bacon's  glory  and  his  fame  ! 

Draw  close  the  curtains,  Miles  :  now,  for  thy  life, 

Be  watchful,  and  .  .  .  (Falls  asleep.) 

MILES.  So ;  I  thought  you  would  talk  yourself  asleep  anon  ; 
and  'tis  no  marvel,  for  Bungay  on  the  days,  and  he  on  the  nights, 
.have  watched  just  these  ten  and  fifty  days  :  now  this  is  the  night, 
and  'tis  my  task,  and  no  more.  Now,  Jesus  bless  me,  what  a 
goodly  head  it  is  !  and  a  nose !  You  talk  of  Nos^  autem  glori- 
Jicare  ;  but  here's  a  nose  that  I  warrant  may  be  called  Nos  autem 
populare  for  the  people  of  the  parish.  Well,  I  am  furnished  with 
weapons  :  now,  sir,  I  will  set  me  down  by  a  post,  and  make  it  as 
good  as  a  watchman  to  wake  me,  if  I  chance  to  slumber.  I 
thought,  Goodman  Head,  I  would  call  you  out  of  your  memento.^ 
Passion  o'  God,  I  have  almost  broke  my  pate!  (A  great  noise.) 
Up,  Miles,  to  your  task ;  take  your  brown-bill  in  your  hand ; 
here's  some  of  your  master's  hobgoblins  abroad. 

THE  BRAZEN  HEAD  (speaks).  Time  is. 

MILES.  Time  is  !  Why,  Master  Brazen-Head,  you  have  such  a 
capital  nose,  and  answer  you  with  syllables,  '  Time  is  "?  Is  this 
my  master's  cunning,  to  spend  seven  years'  study  about  'Time 
is '?  Well,  sir,  it  may  be  we  shall  have  some  better  orations 

*  From  the  Greek  <£o/3o£,  fear ;  <f>6(3qrpa,  bugbears. 

t  Bad  puns  were  evidently  common  on  the  stage  before  the 
days  of  Victorian  burlesque. 

J  So  Shakespeare,  '  1  Hen.  IV.,'  iii.  Falstaffsays  :  'I  make  as 
good  use  of  it  as  many  a  man  doth  of  a  death's  head,  or  a  memento 
house.' 


CHAP,  i.]  GREENE'S  COMEDY.  49 

of  it  anon  :  well,  I'll  watch  you  as  narrowly  as  ever  you  were 
watched,  and  I'll  play  with  you  as  the  nightingale  with  the  glow- 
worm ;  I'll  set  a  prick  against  my  breast.*  Now  rest  there, 
Miles.  Lord  have  mercy  upon  me,  I  have  almost  killed  myself. 
(A  great  noise.)  Up,  Miles  ;  list  how  they  rumble. 

THE  BRAZEN  HEAD  (loquitur).  Time  was. 

MILES.  Well,  Friar  Bacon,  you  have  spent  your  seven  years' 
study  well,  that  can  make  your  Head  speak  but  two  words  at 
once,  '  Time  was.'  Yea,  marry,  time  was  when  my  master  was  a 
wise  man;  but  that  was  before  he  began  to  make  the  Brazen 
Head.  You  shall  lie  while  you  ache,  an  your  head  speak  no 
better.  Well,  I  will  watch,  and  walk  up  and  down,  and  be  a 
peripatetianf  and  a  philosopher  of  Aristotle's  stamp.  (A  great 
noise.)  What,  a  fresh  noise  ?  Take  thy  pistols  in  hand,  Miles. 
(A  lightning  flashes  forth,  and  a  Hand  appears  that  breaks  down  the 
HEAD  with  a  hammer.)  Master,  master,  up  !  Hell's  broken  loose  ! 
Your  Head  speaks  ;  and  there's  such  a  thunder  and  lightning, 
that  I  warrant  all  Oxford  is  up  in  arms.  Out  of  your  bed,  and 
take  a  brownbill  in  your  hand ;  the  latter  day  is  come. 

BACON.  Miles,  I  come.  (Rises  and  comes  forward. ) 

O,  passing  warily  watched  ! 
Bacon  will  make  thee  next  himself  in  love. 
When  spake  the  Head  1 

MILES.  When  spake  the  Head  1  Did  you  not  say  that  he 
should  tell  strange  principles  of  philosophy  ?  Why,  sir,  it  speaks 
but  two  words  at  a  time. 

BACON.  Why,  villain,  hath  it  spoken  oft  ? 

MILES.  Oft !  ay,  marry  hath  it,  thrice ;  but  in  all  those  three 
times  it  hath  uttered  but  seven  words. 

BACON.  As  how  ? 

MILES.  Marry,  sir,  the  first  time  he  said,  '  Time  is,'  as  if  Fabius 
Commentator^  should  have  pronounced  a  sentence ;  then  he  said, 

*  So  in  the  '  Passionate  Pilgrim ': 

1  Save  the  nightingale  alone  : 
She,  poor  bird,  as  all  forlorn, 
Leaned  her  breast  uptill  a  thorn.' 

t  A  peripatetic,  or  walking  philosopher.  Observe  the  facetious- 
ness  in  '  Aristotle's  stamp.'  Aristotle  was  the  founder  of  the 
Peripatetics. 

t  Fabius  Cunctator,  or  the  Delayer,  so  called  from  the  policy  of 
delay  which  he  opposed  to  the  vigorous  movements  of  Hannibal. 

4 


50  WITCH,  WARLOCK,  AND  MAGICIAN.        [BOOK  I. 

'  Time  was  ;'  and  the  third  time,  with  thunder  and  lightning,  as 
in  great  choler,  he  said,  'Time  is  past.' 

BACON.  'Tis  past,  indeed.     Ah,  villain  !  Time  is  past ; 
My  life,  my  fame,  my  glory,  are  all  past. 
Bacon, 

The  turrets  of  thy  hope  are  ruined  down, 
Thy  seven  years'  study  lieth  in  the  dust  : 
Thy  Brazen  Head  lies  broken  through  a  slave 
That  watched,  and  would  not  when  the  Head  did  will. 
What  said  the  Head  first  ? 

MILES.  Even,  sir,  'Time  is.' 

BACON.  Villain,  if  thou  hadst  called  to  Bacon  then, 
If  thou  hadst  watched,  and  waked  the  sleepy  friar, 
The  Brazen  Head  had  uttered  aphorisms, 
And  England  had  been  circled  round  with  brass  : 
But  proud  Asmenoth,*  ruler  of  the  North, 
And  Demogorgon,!  master  of  the  Fates, 
Grudge  that  a  mortal  man  should  work  so  much. 
Hell  trembled  at  my  deep-commanding  spells, 
Fiends  frowned  to  see  a  man  their  over-match  ; 
Bacon  might  boast  more  than  a  man  might  boast ; 
But  now  the  braves^  of  Bacon  have  an  end, 

One  would  suppose  that  the  humour  here,  such  as  it  is,  would 
hardly  be  perceptible  to  a  theatrical  audience. 

*  In  the  old  German  '  Faustbuch,'  the  title  of  £  Prince  of  the 
North  '  is  given  to  Beelzebub. 

f  Demogorgon,  or  Demiourgos — the  creative  principle  of  evil — 
figures  largely  in  literature.  He  is  first  mentioned  by  Lactantius, 
in  the  fourth  century ;  then  by  Boccaccio,  Boiardo,  Tasso  ('  Gieru- 
salemme  Liberata '),  and  Ariosto  ('  Orlando  l^urioso ').  Marlowe 
speaks,  in  * Tamburlaine,'  of  'Gorgon,  prince  of  Hell.'  Spenser, 
in  '  The  Faery  Queen,'  refers  to — 

'  Great  Gorgon,  prince  of  darkness  and  dead  night, 
At  which  Cocytus  quakes,  and  Styx  is  put  to  flight.' 
Milton,  in   '  Paradise  Lost,'  alludes   to  '  the  dreaded   name   of 
Demogorgon.'      Dryden    says :    '  When    the    moon    arises,    and 
Demogorgon  walks  his  round.'     And  he  is  one  of  the  dramatis 
persons  of   Shelley's  '  Prometheus  Unbound ':   '  Demogorgon,   a 
tremendous  gloom.  ...  A  mighty  Darkness,  filling  the  seat  of 
power.' 

I  Boasts.  So  in  Peele's  'Edward  I':  'As  thou  to  England 
brought'st  thy  Scottish  braves.' 


CHAP,  i.]  GREENE'S  COMEDY.  5J 

Europe's  conceit  of  Bacon  hath  an  end, 
His  seven  years'  practice  sorteth  to  ill  end  : 
And,  villain,  sith  my  glory  hath  an  end, 
I  will  appoint  thee  to  some  fatal  end.* 
Villain,  avoid  !  get  thee  from  Bacon's  sight ! 
Vagrant,  go,  roam  and  range  about  the  world, 
And  perish  as  a  vagabond  on  earth  ! 

MILES.  Why,  then,  sir,  you  forbid  me  your  service  ?       ^0^ 

BACON.  My  service,  villain,  with  a  fatal  curse, 
That  direful  plagues  and  mischief  fall  on  thee. 

MILES.  Tis  no  matter,  I  am  against  you  with  the  old  proverb, 
c  The  more  the  fox  is  cursed,  the  better  he  fares.'  God  be  with 
you,  sir  :  I'll  take  but  a  book  in  my  hand,  a  wide-sleeved  gown 
on  my  back,  and  a  crowned  capf  on  my  head,  and  see  if  I  can 
merit  promotion. 

BACON.  Some  fiend  or  ghost  haunt  on  thy  weary  steps, 
Until  they  do  transport  thee  quick  to  Hell ! 
For  Bacon  shall  have  never  any  day. 
To  lose  the  fame  and  honour  of  his  Head. 

[Exeunt. 

Scene  XII.  passes  in  King  Henry's  Court,  and  the 
royal  consent  is  given  to  Earl  Lacy's  marriage  with 
the  Fair  Maid,  which  is  fixed  to  take  place  on  the 
same  day  as  Prince  Edward's  marriage  to  the  Princess 
Elinor.  In  Scene  XIII.  we  again  go  back  to  Bacon's 
cell.  The  friar  is  bewailing  the  destruction  of  his 
Brazen  Head  to  Friar  Bungay,  when  two  young  gentle- 
men, named  Lambert  and  Sealsby,  enter,  in  order  to 
look  into  the  '  glass  prospective,'  and  see  how  their 
fathers  are  faring.  Unhappily,  at  this  very  moment, 
the  elder  Lambert  and  Sealsby,  having  quarrelled,  are 
engaged  '  in  combat  hard  by  Fressingfield,'  and  stab 
each  other  to  the  death,  whereupon  their  sons  imme- 

*  This   reiteration  of   the   same  final  word,  for   the  sake  of 
emphasis,  is  found  in  Shakespeare, 
t  A  corner  or  college  cap. 

4—2 


52  WITCH,  WARLOCK,  AND  MAGICIAN.       [BOOK  I. 

diately  come  to  blows,  with  a  like  fatal  result.  Bacon, 
deeply  affected,  breaks  the  magic  crystal  which  has 
been  the  unwitting  cause  of  so  sad  a  catastrophe, 
expresses  his  regret  that  he  ever  dabbled  in  the  un- 
holy science,  and  announces  his  resolve  to  spend  the 
remainder  of  his  life  'in  pure  devotion.' 

At  Fressingfield,  in  Scene  XIV.,  the  opportune 
arrival  of  Lacy  and  his  friends  prevents  Margaret 
from  carrying  out  her  intention  of  retiring  to  the 
nunnery  at  Framlingham,  and  with  obliging  readiness 
she  consents  to  marry  the  Earl.  Scene  XV.  shifts  to 
Bacon's  cell,  where  a  devil  complains  that  the  friar 
hath  raised  him  from  the  darkest  deep  to  search  about 
the  world  for  Miles,  his  man,  and  torment  him  in 
punishment  for  his  neglect  of  orders. 

Miles  makes  his  appearance,  and  after  some  comic 
dialogue,  intended  to  tickle  the  ears  of  the  ground- 
lings, mounts  astride  the  demon's  back,  and  goes  off 

to !     In  Scene  XVI.,  and  last,  we  return  to  the 

Court,  where  royalty  makes  a  splendid  show,  and  the 
two  brides — the  Princess  Elinor  and  the  Countess 
Margaret — display  their  rival  charms.  Of  course  the 
redoubtable  friar  is  present,  and  in  his  concluding 
speech  leaps  over  a  couple  of  centuries  to  make  a 
glowing  compliment  to  Queen  Elizabeth,  which  seems 
worth  quotation : 

'  I  find  by  deep  prescience  of  mine  art, 
Which  once  I  tempered  in  my  secret  cell, 
That  here  where  Brute  did  build  his  Troynovant,* 

*  An  allusion  to  the  old  legend  that  Brut,  or  Brutus,  great- 
grandson  of  ^Eneas,  founded  New  Troy  (Troynovant),  or 
London. 


CHAP.  L]  GREENE'S  COMEDY.  53 

From  forth  the  royal  garden  of  a  King 

Shall  flourish  out  so  rich  and  fair  a  bud, 

Whose  brightness  shall  deface  proud  Phrebus'  flower, 

And  overshadow  Albion  with  her  leaves. 

Till  then  Mars  shall  be  master  of  the  field, 

But  then  the  stormy  threats  of  war  shall  cease  : 

The  horse  shall  stamp  as  careless  of  the  pike, 

Drums  shall  be  turned  to  timbrels  of  delight ; 

With  wealthy  favours  Plenty  shall  enrich 

The  strand  that  gladded  wandering  Brute  to  see, 

And  peace  from  heaven  shall  harbour  in  these  leaves 

That  gorgeous  beautify  this  matchless  flower : 

Apollo's  heliotropian*  then  shall  stoop, 

And  Venus'  hyacinthf  shall  vail  her  top ; 

Juno  shall  shut  her  gilliflowers  up, 

And  Pallas'  bay  shall  'bash  her  brightest  green ; 

Ceres'  carnation,  in  consort  with  those, 

Shall  stoop  and  wonder  at  Diana's  rose.  J 

So  much  for  Greene's  comedy  of  '  Friar  Bacon  and 
Friar  Bungay ' — not,  on  the  whole,  a  bad  piece  of 
work. 

Among  the  earlier  English  alchemists  I  may  next 
name,  in  chronological  order,  George  Ripley,  canon 
of  Bridlington,  who,  in  1471,  dedicated  to  King  Ed- 
ward III.  his  once  celebrated  '  Compound  of  Alchemy ; 
or,  The  Twelve  Gates  leading  to  the  Discovery  of  the 
Philosopher's  Stone.'  These  'gates,'  each  of  which 
he  describes  in  detail,  but  with  little  enlightenment  to 
the  uninitiated  reader,  are: — 1.  Calcination;  2.  Solu- 
tion ;  3.  Separation ;  4.  Conjunction ;  5.  Putrefac- 

*  Probably  the  reference  is  to  the  sunflower. 

t  The  classic  writers  usually  identify  the  hyacinth  with 
Apollo. 

t  The  rose,  that  is,  of  the  Virgin  Queen — an  English  Diana — 
Elizabeth.  In  Shakespeare's  '  Midsummer  Night's  Dream'  (Act  iv., 
scene  1)  we  read  of  '  Diana's  bud.' 


54  WITCH,  WARLOCK,  AND  MAGICIAN.       [BOOK  I. 

tion ;  6.  Congelation  ;  7.  Cibation ;  8.  Sublimation ; 
9.  Fermentation;  10.  Exaltation;  11.  Multiplication; 
and  12.  Projection.  In  his  old  age  Ripley  learned 
wisdom,  and  frankly  acknowledged  that  he  had  wasted 
his  life  upon  an  empty  pursuit.  He  requested  all 
men,  if  they  met  with  any  of  the  five-and-twenty 
treatises  of  which  he  was  the  author,  to  consign  them 
to  the  flames  as  absolutely  vain  and  worthless. 

Yet  there  is  a  wild  story  that  he  actually  discovered 
the  '  magisterium,'  and  was  thereby  enabled  to  send  a 
gift  of  £100,000  to  the  Knights  of  St.  John,  to  assist 
them  in  their  defence  of  Rhodes  against  the  Turks. 

Thomas  Norton,  of  Bristol,  wTas  the  author  of  i  The 
Ordinall  of  Alchemy '  (printed  in  London  in  1652). 
He  is  said  to  have  been  a  pupil  of  Ripley,  under 
whom  (at  the  age  of  28)  he  studied  for  forty  days, 
and  in  that  short  time  acquired  a  thorough  know- 
ledge of  '  the  perfection  of  chemistry.'  Ripley,  how- 
ever, refused  to  instruct  so  young  a  man  in  the 
master-secret  of  the  great  science,  and  the  process 
from  '  the  white '  to  *  the  red  powder/  so  that  Norton 
was  compelled  to  rely  on  his  own  skill  and  industry. 
Twice  in  his  labours  a  sad  disappointment  overtook 
him.  On  one  occasion  he  had  almost  completed  the 
tincture,  when  the  servant  whom  he  employed  to 
look  after  the  furnace  decamped  with  it,  supposing 
that  it  was  fit  for  use.  On  another  it  was  stolen  by 
the  wife  of  William  Canning,  Mayor  of  Bristol,  who 
immediately  sprang  into  immense  wealth,  and  as  some 
amends,  I  suppose,  for  his  ill-gotten  gains,  built  the 


CHAP.   I.]  THOMAS    D ALTON.  55 

beautiful  steeple  of  the  church  of  St.  Mary,  Redcliffe 
—the  church  afterwards  connected  with  the  sad  story 
of  Chatterton.     As  for  Norton,  he  seems  to  have  lived 
in  poverty  and  died  in  poverty  (1477). 

The  '  Ordinall  of  Alchemy  '  is  a  tedious  panegyric 
of  the  science,  interspersed  with  a  good  deal  of  the 
vague  talk  about  white  and  red  stones  and  the  philo- 
sophical magnesia  in  which  c  the  adepts '  delighted. 

To  Norton  we  owe  our  scanty  knowledge  of  Thomas 
Dalton,  who  flourished  about  the  middle  of  the 
•fifteenth  century.  He  had  the  reputation  of  being  a 
devout  Churchman  until  he  was  accused  by  a  certain 
Debois  of  possessing  the  powder  of  projection.  Debois 
roundly  asserted  that  Norton  had  made  him  a  thousand 
pounds  of  gold  (lucky  man !)  in  less  than  twelve  hours. 
Whereupon  Dalton  simply  said,  '  Sir,  you  are  for- 
sworn.' His  explanation  was  that  he  had  received 
the  powder  from  a  canon  of  Lichfield,  on  undertaking 
not  to  use  it  until  after  the  canon's  death;  and  that 
since  he  had  been  so  troubled  by  his  possession  of  it, 
that  he  had  secretly  destroyed  it.  One  Thomas  Her- 
bert, a  squire  of  King  Edward,  waylaid  the  unfortu- 
nate man,  and  shut  him  up  in  the  castle  of  Gloucester, 
putting  heavy  pressure  upon  him  to  make  the  coveted 
tincture.  But  this  Dalton  would  not  and  could  not 
do  ;  and  after  a  captivity  of  four  years,  Herbert 
ordered  him  to  be  brought  out  and  executed  in  his 
presence.  He  obeyed  the  harsh  summons  with  great 
delight,  exclaiming,  '  Blessed  art  Thou,  Lord  Jesus ! 
I  have  been  too  long  absent  from  Thee.  The  science 


56  WITCH,  WARLOCK,  AND  MAGICIAN.        [BOOK  I. 

Thou  gavest  me  I  have  kept  without  ever  abusing  it ; 
I  have  found  no  one  fit  to  be  my  heir  ;  wherefore, 
sweet  Lord,  I  will  restore  Thy  gift  to  Thee  again.7 

'  Then,  after  some  devout  prayer,  with  a  smiling 
countenance  he  desired  the  executioner  to  proceed. 
Tears  gushed  from  the  eyes  of  Herbert  when  he 
beheld  him  so  willing  to  die,  and  saw  that  no 
ingenuity  could  wrest  his  secret  from  him.  He  gave 
orders  for  his  release.  His  imprisonment  and  threat- 
ened execution  were  contrived  without  the  King's 
knowledge  to  intimidate  him  into  compliance.  The 
iniquitous  devices  having  failed,  Herbert  did  not  dare 
to  take  away  his  life.  Dalton  rose  from  the  block 
with  a  heavy  countenance,  and  returned  to  his  abbey, 
much  grieved  at  the  further  prolongation  of  his 
earthly  sojourn.  Herbert  died  shortly  after  this 
atrocious  act  of  tyranny,  and  Debois  also  came  to  an 
untimely  end.  His  father,  Sir  John  Debois,  was  slain 
at  the  battle  of  Tewkesbury,  May  4,  1471 ;  and  two 
days  after,  as  recorded  in  Stow's  "Annales,"  he  himself 
(James  Debois)  was  taken,  with  several  others  of  the 
Lancastrian  party,  from  a  church  where  they  had  fled 
for  sanctuary,  and  was  beheaded  on  the  spot/ 

APPENDIX  TO  CHAPTER  I. 

The  ancient  magic  included  various  kinds  of  divination,  of 
which  the  principal  may  here  be  catalogued  : 

Aeromancy,  or  divination  from  the  air.  If  the  wind  blew  from 
the  east,  it  signified  good  fortune  (which  is  certainly  not  the 
general  opinion  !) ;  from  the  west,  evil ;  from  the  south,  calamity ; 
from  the  north,  disclosure  of  what  was  secret ;  from  all  quarters 
simultaneously  (!),  hail  and  rain. 


CHAP.   I.]  APPENDIX    TO    CHAPTER   I.  57 

Axinomancy,  practised  by  the  Greeks,  more  particularly  for  the 
purpose  of  discovering  criminals.  An  axe  poised  upon  a  stake,  or 
an  agate  on  a  red-hot  axe,  was  supposed  by  its  movement  to 
indicate  the  offender.  Or  the  names  of  suspected  persons  were 
called  out,  and  the  movement  of  the  axe  at  a  particular  name  was 
understood  to  certify  guilt. 

Belomancy,  in  use  among  the  Arabs,  was  practised  by  means  of 
arrows,  which  were  shot  off,  with  written  labels  attached  to  them; 
and  the  inscription  on  the  arrow  first  picked  up  was  accepted  as 
prophetic. 

Bibliomancy,  divining  by  means  of  the  Bible,  survived  to  a 
comparatively  recent  period.  The  passage  which  first  caught  the 
eye,  on  a  Bible  being  opened  haphazard,  was  supposed  to  indi- 
cate the  future.  This  was  identical  with  the  Sortes  Tirgiliance, 
the  only  difference  being  that  in  the  latter,  Virgil  took  the 
place  of  the  Bible.  Everybody  knows  in  connection  with  the 
Sortes  the  story  of  Charles  I.  and  Lord  Falkland. 

Botanomancy,  divining  by  means  of  plants  and  flowers,  can 
hardly  be  said  to  be  extinct  even  now.  In  Goethe's  'Faust,' 
Gretchen  seeks  to  discover  whether  Faust  returns  her  affection 
by  plucking,  one  after  another,  the  petals  of  a  star-flower  (stern- 
blume,  perhaps  the  china-aster),  while  she  utters  the  alternate 
refrains,  '  He  loves  me  !'  '  He  loves  me  not !'  as  she  plucks  the 
last  petal,  exclaiming  rapturously,  '  He  loves  me  !'  According  to 
Theocritus,  the  Greeks  used  the  poppy-flower  for  this  purpose. 

Capnomancy,  divination  by  smoke,  the  ancients  practised  in  two 
ways :  they  threw  seeds  of  jasmine  or  poppy  in  the  fire,  watching 
the  motion  and  density  of  the  smoke  they  emitted,  or  they 
observed  the  sacrificial  smoke.  If  the  smoke  was  thin,  and  shot 
up  in  a  straight  line,  it  was  a  good  omen. 

Cheiromancy  (or  Palmistry),  divination  by  the  hand,  was  worked 
up  into  an  elaborate  system  by  Paracelsus,  Cardan,  and  others. 
It  has  long  been  practised  by  the  gipsies,  by  itinerant  fortune-tellers, 
and  other  cheats ;  and  recently  an  attempt  has  been  made  to 
give  it  a  fashionable  character. 

Coscinomancy  was  practised  by  means  of  a  sieve  and  a  pair  of 
shears  or  forceps.  The  forceps  or  shears  were  used  to  suspend  a 
sieve,  which  moved  (like  the  axe  in  axinomancy)  when  the  name 
of  a  guilty  person  was  mentioned. 

Crystattomancy,  divining  by  means  of  a  crystal  globe,  mirror,  or 
beryl.  Of  this  science  of  prediction,  Dr.  Dee  was  the  great 


58  WITCH,  WARLOCK,  AND  MAGICIAN.       [BOOK  I. 

English  professor ;  but  the  reader  will  doubtless  remember  the 
story  of  the  Earl  of  Surrey  and  his  fair  '  Geraldine.' 

Geomancy,  divination  by  casting  pebbles  on  the  ground. 

Hydromancy,  divination  by  water,  in  which  the  diviner  showed 
the  figure  of  an  absent  person.  '  In  this  you  conjure  the  spirits 
into  water;  there  they  are  constrained  to  show  themselves,  as 
Marcus  Varro  testifieth,  when  he  writeth  how  he  had  seen  a  boy 
in  the  water,  who  announced  to  him  in  a  hundred  and  fifty  verses 
the  end  of  the  Mithridatic  war.' 

Oneiromancy,  divination  by  dreams,  is  still  credited  by  old 
women  of  both  sexes.  Absurdly  baseless  as  it  is,  it  found  be- 
lievers in  the  old  time  among  men  of  culture  and  intellectual 
force.  Archbishop  Laud  attached  so  much  importance  to  his 
dreams  that  he  frequently  recorded  them  in  his  diary ;  and  even 
Lord  Bacon  seems  to  have  thought  that  a  prophetic  meaning 
was  occasionally  concealed  in  them. 

Onychomancy,  or  Onymancy,  divination  by  means  of  the  nails  of 
an  unpolluted  boy. 

Pyromancy,  divination  by  fire.  '  The  wife  of  Cicero  is  said, 
when,  after  performing  sacrifice,  she  saw  a  flame  suddenly  leap 
forth  from  the  ashes,  to  have  prophesied  the  consulship  to  her 
husband  for  the  same  year.'  Others  resorted  to  the  blaze  of  a 
torch  of  pitch,  which  was  painted  with  certain  colours.  It  was  a 
good  omen  if  the  flame  ran  into  a  point ;  bad  when  it  divided. 
A  thin-tongued  flame  announced  glory ;  if  it  went  out,  it  signified 
danger ;  if  it  hissed,  misfortune. 

fiabdomancy,  divination  by  the  rod  or  wand,  is  mentioned  by 
Ezekiel.  The  use  of  a  hazel-rod  to  trace  the  existence  of  water 
or  of  a  seam  of  coal  seems  a  survival  of  this  practice.  But 
enough  of  these  follies  : 

'  Necro-,  pyro-,  geo-,  hydro-,  cheiro-,  coscinomancy, 
With  other  vain  and  superstitious  sciences.' 

Tomkis,  '  Albumazar,'  ii.  3. 


CHAP.  II.]  THE    STORY    OF   DR.    JOHN    DEE.  59 


CHAPTER  II. 

THE    STOKY    OF    DK.    JOHN    DEE. 

THE  world  must  always  feel  carious  to  know  the 
exact  moment  when  its  great  men  first  drew  the 
breath  of  life  ;  and  it  is  satisfactory,  therefore,  to  be 
able  to  state,  on  the  weighty  authority  of  Dr.  Thomas 
Smith,  that  Dr.  John  Dee,  the  famous  magician  and 
'philosopher/  was  born  at  forty  minutes  past  four 
o'clock  on  the  morning  of  July  13,  1527.  Accord- 
ing to  the  picturesque  practice  of  latter-day  biographers, 
here  I  ought  to  describe  a  glorious  summer  sunrise, 
the  golden  light  spreading  over  hill  and  pasture,  the 
bland  warm  air  stealing  into  the  chamber  where  lay 
the  mother  and  her  infant ;  but  I  forbear,  as,  for  all  I 
know,  this  particular  July  morning  may  have  been 
cloudy,  cold,  and  wet  ;  besides,  John,  the  son  of 
Rowland  Dee,  was  born  in  London.  From  like  want 
of  information  I  refrain  from  comments  on  Master 
Dee's  early  bringing-up  and  education.  But  it  is  re- 
ported that  he  gave  proof  of  so  exceptional  a  capacity, 
and  of  such  a  love  of  letters,  that,  at  the  early  age  of 
fifteen,  he  was  sent  to  the  University  of  Cambridge,  to 
study  the  classics  and  the  old  scholastic  philosophy. 


60  WITCH,  WARLOCK,  AND  MAGICIAN.        [BOOK  I. 

There,  for  three  years,  he  was  so  vehemently  bent,  he 
says,  on  the  acquisition  of  learning,  that  he  spent 
eighteen  hours  a  day  on  his  books,  reserving  two  only 
for  his  meals  and  recreation,  and  four  for  sleep — an 
unhealthy  division  of  time,  which  probably  over- 
stimulated  his  cerebral  system  and  predisposed  him  to 
delusions  and  caprices  of  the  imagination.  Having 
taken  his  degree  of  B.A.,  he  crossed  the  seas  in  1547 
4  to  speak  and  confer '  with  certain  learned  men,  chiefly 
mathematicians,  such  as  Gemma  Frisius,  Gerardus 
Mercator,  Gaspar  a  Morica,  and  Antonius  Gogara  ;  of 
whom  the  only  one  now  remembered  is  Mercator,  as 
the  inventor  of  a  method  of  laying  down  hydro- 
graphical  charts,  in  which  the  parallels  and  meridians 
intersect  each  other  at  right  angles.  After  spending 
some  months  in  the  Low  Countries  he  returned  home, 
bringing  with  him  'the  first  astronomer's  staff  of 
brass  that  was  made  of  Gemma  Frisius'  devising,  the 
two  great  globes  of  Gerardus  Mercator' s  making,  and 
the  astronomer's  ring  of  brass  (as  Gemma  Frisius  had 
newly  framed  it)/ 

Returning  to  the  classic  shades  of  Granta,  he  began 
to  record  his  observations  of  '  the  heavenly  influences 
in  this  elemental  portion  of  the  world  :'  and  I  suppose 
it  was  in  recognition  of  his  scientific  scholarship  that 
Henry  VIII.  appointed  him  to  a  fellowship  at  Trinity 
College,  and  Greek  under-reader.  In  the  latter 
capacity  he  superintended,  in  1548,  the  performance 
of  the  'Eipnvrj  of  Aristophanes,  introducing  among 
'  the  effects '  an  artificial  scarabasus,  which  ascended, 
with  a  man  and  his  wallet  of  provisions  on  its  back, 


CHAP.   II.]  THE    STORY    OF    DR.    JOHN    DEE.  61 

to  Jupiter's  palace.  This  ingenious  bit  of  mechanism 
delighted  the  spectators,  but,  after  the  manner  of  the 
time,  was  ascribed  to  Dee's  occultism,  and  he  found  it 
convenient  to  retire  to  the  Continent  (1548),  residing 
for  awhile  at  Louvain,  and  devoting  himself  to  hermetic 
researches,  and  afterwards  at  Paris  (1580),  where  he 
delivered  scientific  lectures  to  large  and  distinguished 
audiences.  '  My  auditory  in  Rhemes  Colledge,'  he 
says,  s  was  so  great,  and  the  most  part  older  than  my 
selfe,  that  the  mathematicall  schooles  could  not  hold 
them  ;  for  many  were  faine,  without  the  schooles,  at 
the  windowes,  to  be  auditors  and  spectators,  as  they 
best  could  help  themselves  thereto.  I  did  also  dictate 
upon  every  proposition,  beside  the  first  exposition. 
And  by  the  first  foure  principall  definitions  represent- 
ing to  the  eyes  (which  by  imagination  onely  are 
exactly  to  be  conceived),  a  greater  wonder  arose  among 
the  beholders,  than  of  my  Aristophanes  Scarabseus 
mounting  up  to  the  top  of  Trinity-hall  in  Cambridge.' 
The  accomplishments  of  this  brilliant  scientific 
mountebank  being  noised  abroad  over  all  Europe,  the 
wonderful  story  reached  the  remote  Court  of  the 
Muscovite,  who  offered  him,  if  he  would  take  up  his 
residence  at  Moscow,  a  stipend  of  £2,000  per  annum, 
his  diet  also  to  be  allowed  to  him  free  out  of  e  the 
Emperor's  own  kitchen,  and  his  place  to  be  ranked 
amongst  the  highest  sort  of  the  nobility  there,  and  of 
his  privy  councillors/  Was  ever  scholar  so  tempted 
before  or  since  ?  In  those  times,  the  Russian  Court 
seems  to  have  held  savants  and  scholars  in  as 
much  esteem  as  nowadays  it  holds  prima-donnas  and 


62  WITCH,  WARLOCK,  AND  MAGICIAN.        [BOOK  I. 

ballerines.  Dee  also  received  advantageous  proposals 
from  four  successive  Emperors  of  Germany  (Charles  V., 
Ferdinand,  Maximilian  II. ,  and  Rudolph  II.),  but  the 
Muscovite's  outbade  them  all.  A  residence  in  the 
heart  of  Russia  had  no  attraction,  however,  for  the 
Oxford  scholar,  who,  in  1551,  returned  to  England 
with  a  halo  of  fame  playing  round  his  head  (to  speak 
figuratively,  as  Dee  himself  loved  to  do),  which 
recommended  him  to  the  celebrated  Greek  professor 
at  Cambridge,  Sir  John  Cheke.  Cheke  introduced 
him  to  Mr.  Secretary  Cecil,  as  well  as  to  Edward  VI. , 
who  bestowed  upon  him  a  pension  of  100  crowns  per 
annum  (speedily  exchanged,  in  1553,  for  the  Rectory 
of  Upton-upon- Severn).  At  first  he  met  with  favour 
from  Queen  Mary ;  but  the  close  correspondence  he 
maintained  with  the  Princess  Elizabeth,  who  ap- 
preciated his  multifarious  scholarship,  exposed  him 
to  suspicion,  and  he  was  accused  of  practising  against 
the  Queen's  life  by  divers  enchantments.  Arrested 
and  imprisoned  (at  Hampton  Court),  he  was  subjected 
to  rigorous  examinations,  and  as  no  charge  of  treason 
could  be  proved  against  him,  was  remitted  to  Bishop 
Bonner  as  a  possible  heretic.  But  his  enemies  failed 
again  in  their  malicious  intent,  and  in  1555  he  received 
his  liberty.  Imprisonment  and  suffering  had  not 
quenched  his  activity  of  temper,  and  almost  imme- 
diately upon  his  release  he  solicited  the  Queen's  assent 
to  a  plan  for  the  restoration  and  preservation  of 
certain  precious  manuscripts  of  classical  antiquity. 
He  solicited  in  vain. 

When  Elizabeth  came   to   the   throne,   Dee,  as  a 


CHAP.   II.]  THE  STORY  OF  DR.  JOHN  DEE.  63 

proficient  in  the  occult  arts,  was  consulted  by  Dudley 
(afterwards  Earl  of  Leicester)  as  to  the  most  suit- 
able and  auspicious   day  for   her   coronation.      She 
testified  to  her  own  belief  in  his  skill  by  employing 
him,  when  her  image  in  wax  had  been  discovered  in 
Lincoln's  Inn  Fields,  to  counteract  the  evil  charm. 
But    he   owed   her   favour,   we   may   assume,  much 
more   to  his   learning,  which  was  really  extensive, 
than  to  his  supposed  magical  powers.     He  tells  us 
that,   shortly  before  her  coronation,   she  summoned 
him  to  Whitehall,  remarking  to  his  patrons,  Dudley 
and  the  Earl  of  Pembroke,  c  Where  my  brother  hath 
given  him  a  crown,  I  will  give  him  a  noble.'     She 
was  certainly  more  liberal  to  Dee  than  to  many  of 
her  servants  who  were  much  more  deserving.      In 
December,    1564,  she  granted  him  the  reversion  of 
the    Deanery  of  Gloucester.      Not   long   afterwards 
his  friends  recommended  him  for  the  Provostship  of 
Eton  College.     '  Favourable  answers '  were  returned, 
but   he    never   received   the   Provostship.      He   ob- 
tained permission,  however,  to  hold  for  ten  years  the 
two  rectories  of  Upton  and  Long  Ledenham.     Later 
in  her  reign   (July,  1583),  when  two  great  nobles 
invited  themselves  to  dine  with  him,  he  was  com- 
pelled to  decline  the  honour  on  account  of  his  poverty. 
The  Queen,  on  being  apprised  of  this  incident,  sent 
him  a  present  of  forty  angels  of  gold.     We  shall  come 
upon  other  proofs  of  her  generosity. 

Dee  was  travelling  on  the  Continent  in  1571,  and 
on  his  way  through  Lorraine  was  seized  with  a 
dangerous  sickness ;  whereupon  the  Queen  not  only 


64  WITCH,  WARLOCK,  AND  MAGICIAN.        [BOOK  I. 

sent  '  carefully  and  with  great  speed  '  two  of  her 
physicians,  but  also  the  honourable  Lord  Sidney 
4  in  a  manner  to  tend  on  him,'  and  'to  discern  how 
his  health  bettered,  and  to  comfort  him  from  her 
Majesty  with  divers  very  pithy  speeches  and  gracious, 
and  also  with  divers  rarities  to  eat,  to  increase  his 
health  and  strength.'  Philosophers  and  men  of  letters, 
when  they  are  ailing,  meet  with  no  such  pleasant 
attentions  nowadays  !  But  the  list  of  Elizabeth's 
bounties  is  not  yet  ended.  The  much-travelling 
scholar,  who  saw  almost  as  much  of  cities  and  men 
and  manners  as  Odysseus  himself,  had  wandered 
into  the  farthest  parts  of  the  kingdom  of  Bohemia  ; 
and  that  no  evil  might  come  to  him,  or  his  com- 
panion, or  their  families,  she  sent  them  her  most 
princely  and  royal  letters  of  safe-conduct.  After 
his  return  home,  a  little  before  Christmas,  1589, 
hearing  that  he  was  unable  to  keep  house  as  liberally 
as  became  his  position  and  repute,  she  promised  to 
assist  him  with  the  gift  of  a  hundred  pounds,  and 
once  or  twice  repeated  the  promise  on  his  coming 
into  her  presence.  Fifty  pounds  he  did  receive, 
with  which  to  keep  his  Christmas  merrily,  but  what 
became  of  the  other  moiety  he  was  never  able  to 
discover.  A  malignant  influence  frequently  inter- 
posed, it  would  seem,  between  the  Queen's  benevolence 
in  intention  and  her  charity  in  action  ;  and  the  un- 
fortunate doctor  was  sometimes  tantalized  with 
promises  of  good  things  which  failed  to  be  realized. 
On  the  whole,  however,  I  do  not  think  he  had  much 
to  complain  of;  and  the  reproach  of  parsimony  so 


CHAP.   II.]  THE  STORY  OF  DR.  JOHN  DEE.  65 

often  levelled  at  great  Gloriana  would  certainly  not 
apply  to  her  treatment  of  Dr.  Dee. 

She  honoured  him  with  several  visits  at  Mortlake, 
where  he  had  a  pleasant  house  close  by  the  river- 
side, and  a  little  to  the  westward  of  the  church — 
surrounded  by  gardens  and  green  fields,  with  bright 
prospects   of   the    shining  river.      Elizabeth  always 
came  down  from  Whitehall  on  horseback,  attended 
by  a  brave  retinue  of  courtiers  ;  and  as  she  passed 
along,   her  loyal   subjects    stood   at   their   doors,  or 
lined    the    roadside,    making    respectful    bows    and 
curtseys,  and  crying,  i  God  save  the  Queen  !'     One 
of  these  royal  visits  was  made  on  March  10,  1675, 
the    Queen    desiring    to    see    the    doctor's    famous 
library  ;    but  learning  that  he  had  buried  his  wife 
only   four   hours   before,    she   refused    to   enter    the 
house.     Dee,  however,  submitted  to    her  inspection 
his   magic  crystal,  or    '  black  stone/  and  exhibited 
some  of  its  marvellous  properties  ;  her  Majesty,  for 
the  better  examination  of  the  same,  being  taken  down 
from  her  horse  '  by  the  Earl   of  Leicester,   by  the 
Church  wall  of  Mortlack.' 

She   was   at   Dr.   Dee's   again    on  September    17, 

•  1580.  This  time  she  came  from  Richmond  in  her 
coach,  a  wonderfully  cumbrous  vehicle,  drawn  by 
six  horses  ;  '  and  when  she  was  against  my  garden 
in  the  fielde/  says  the  doctor,  '  her  Majestie  staide 
there  a  good  while,  and  then  came  into  the  street  at 
the  great  gate  of  the  field,  where  her  Majestie 

E  espied  me  at  my  dore,  making  reverent  and  dutifull 
obeysance  unto  her,  and  with  her  hand  her  Majestie 
1 


66  WITCH,  WARLOCK,  AND  MAGICIAN.        [BOOK  I. 

beckoned  for  me  to  come  to  her,  and  I  came  to  her 
coach  side  ;  her  Majestie  then  very  speedily  pulled 
off  her  glove,  and  gave  me  her  hand  to  kiss  ;  and 
to  be  short,  her  Majestie  wished  me  to  resort 
oftener  to  her  Court,  and  by  some  of  her  Privy 
Chamber  to  give  her  Majestie  to  wete  (know)  when  I 
came  there/ 

Another  visit  took  place  on  October  10,  1580  :— 
i  The  Queenes  Majestie  to  my  great  comfort  (hord 
quinta)  came  with  her  train  from  the  Court,  and  at 
my  dore  graciously  calling  me  unto  her,  on  horseback 
exhorted  me  briefly  to  take  my  mother's  death 
patiently ;  and  withal  told  me,  that  the  Lord 
Treasurer  had  greatly  commended  my  doings  for  her 
title  royall,  which  he  had  to  examine.  The  which 
title  in  two  rolls  of  velome  parchment  his  Honour 
had  some  houres  before  brought  home,  and  delivered 
to  Mr.  Hudson  for  me  to  receive  at  my  coming  from 
my  mother's  buriall  at  church.  Her  Majestie  re- 
membered also  then,  how  at  my  wives  buriall  it  was 
her  fortune  likewise  to  call  upon  me  at  my  house,  as 
before  is  noted.' 

Dee's  library — as  libraries  went  then — was  not 
unworthy  of  royal  inspection.  Its  proud  possessor 
computed  it  to  be  worth  £2,000,  which,  at  the 
present  value  of  money,  would  be  equal,  I  suppose, 
to  £10,000.  It  consisted  of  about  4,000  volumes, 
bound  and  unbound,  a  fourth  part  being  MSS.  He 
speaks  of  four  '  written  books  ' — one  in  Greek,  two 
in  French,  and  one  in  High  Dutch — as  having  cost 
him  £533,  and  inquires  triumphantly  what  must 


CHAP.   II.]  THE  STORY  OF  DR.  JOHN  DEE.  67 

have  been  the  value  of  some  hundred  of  the  best  of 
all  the  other  written  books,  some  of  which  were  the 
autograplda  of  excellent  and  seldom-heard-of  authors  ? 
He  adds  that  he  spent  upwards  of  forty  years  in 
collecting  this  library  from  divers  places  beyond 
the  seas,  and  with  much  research  and  labour  in 
England. 

Of  the  c  precious  books  '  thus  collected,  Dee  does 
not  mention  the  titles  ;  but  he  has  recorded  the  rare 
and  exquisitely  made  '  instruments  mathematical ' 
which  belonged  to  him  :  An  excellent,  strong,  and 
fair  quadrant,  first  made  by  that  famous  Richard 
Chancellor  who  boldly  carried  his  discovery-ships 
past  the  Icy  Cape,  and  anchored  them  in  the  White 
Sea.  There  was  also  an  excellent  radius  astro- 
nomicus,  of  ten  feet  in  length,  the  staff  and  cross 
very  curiously  divided  into  equal  parts,  after  Richard 
Chancellor's  quadrant  manner.  Item,  two  globes  of 
Mercator's  best  making  :  on  the  celestial  sphere  Dee, 
with  his  own  hand,  had  set  down  divers  comets, 
their  places  and  motions,  according  to  his  individual 
observation.  Item,  divers  other  instruments,  as 
the  theorie  of  the  eighth  sphere,  the  ninth  and 
tenth,  with  an  horizon  and  meridian  of  copper,  made 
by  Mercator  specially  for  Dr.  Dee.  Item,  sea- com- 
passes of  different  kinds.  Item,  a  magnet- stone, 
commonly  called  a  loadstone,  of  great  virtue. 
Also  an  excellent  watch-clock,  made  by  one  Dibbley, 
'  a  notable  workman,  long  since  dead/  by  which  the 
time  might  sensibly  be  measured  in  the  seconds  of 
an  hour — that  is,  not  to  fail  the  360th  part  of  an 

5—2 


68  WITCH,  WARLOCK,  AND  MAGICIAN,        [BOOK  I. 

hour.  We  need  not  dwell  upon  his  store  of  docu- 
ments relating  to  Irish  and  Welsh  estates,  and  of 
ancient  seals  of  arms  ;  but  my  curiosity,  I  confess, 
is  somewhat  stirred  by  his  reference  to  '  a  great 
bladder/  with  about  four  pounds  weight  of  '  a  very 
sweetish  thing,'  like  a  brownish  gum,  in  it,  arti- 
ficially prepared  by  thirty  times  purifying,  which  the 
doctor  valued  at  upwards  of  a  hundred  crowns. 

While  engaged  in  learned  studies  and  corre- 
spondence with  learned  men,  Dee  found  time  to 
indulge  in  those  wild  semi- mystical,  transcendental 
visions  which  engaged  the  imagination  of  so  many 
mediaeval  students.  The  secret  of  '  the  philosopher's 
stone '  led  him  into  fascinating  regions  of  specula- 
tion, and  the  ecstasies  of  Rosicrucianism  dazzled  him 
with  the  idea  of  holding  communication  with  the 
inhabitants  of  the  other  world.  How  far  he  was 
sincere  in  these  pursuits,  how  far  he  imparted  into 
them  a  spirit  of  charlatanry,  I  think  it  is  impossible 
to  determine.  Perhaps  one  may  venture  to  say 
that,  if  to  some  small  extent  an  impostor,  he  was,  to 
a  much  larger  extent,  a  dupe ;  that  if  he  deceived 
others,  he  also  deceived  himself ;  nor  is  he,  as 
biography  teaches,  the  only  striking  example  of  the 
credulous  enthusiast  who  mingles  with  his  enthu- 
siasm, more  or  less  unconsciously,  a  leaven  of 
hypocrisy.  As  early  as  1571  he  complains,  in  the 
preface  to  his  '  English  Euclid,'  that  he  is  jeered  at 
by  the  populace  as  a  conjurer.  By  degrees,  it  is 
evident,  he  begins  to  feel  a  pride  in  his  magical 


CHAP.   II.]  THE  STORY  OF  DR.  JOHN  DEE.  69 

attainments.  He  records  with  the  utmost  gravity 
his  remarkable  dreams,  and  endeavours  to  read  the 
future  by  them.  He  insists,  moreover,  on  strange 
noises  which  he  hears  in  his  chamber.  In  those 
days  a  favourite  method  of  summoning  the  spirits 
was  to  bring  them  into  a  glass  or  stone  which  had 
been  prepared  for  the  purpose  ;  and  in  his  diary, 
under  the  date  of  May  25,  1581,  he  records — for  the 
first  time — that  he  had  held  intercourse  in  this  way 
with  supra-mundane  beings. 

Combining  with  his  hermetico-magical  speculations 
religious  exercises  of  great  fervour,  he  was  thus  en- 
gaged, one  day  in  November,  1582,  when  suddenly 
upon  his  startled  vision  rose  the  angel  Uriel  '  at  the 
west  window  of  his  laboratory,'  and  presented  him 
with  a  translucent  stone,  or  crystal,  of  convex  shape, 
possessing  the  wonderful  property  of  introducing  its 
owner  to  the  closest  possible  communication  with  the 
world  of  spirits.  It  was  necessary  at  times  that  this 
so-called  mirror  should  be  turned  in  different  posi- 
tions before  the  observer  could  secure  the  right  focus ; 
and  then  the  spirits  appeared  on  its  surface,  or  in 
different  parts  of  the  room  by  reason  of  its  action. 
Further,  only  one  person,  whom  Dee  calls  the  skryer, 
or  seer,  could  discover  the  spirits,  or  hear  and  inter- 
pret their  voices,  just  as  there  can  be  but  one  medium, 
I  believe,  at  a  spiritualistic  seance  of  the  present  day. 
But,  of  course,  it  was  requisite  that,  while  the  medium 
was  absorbed  in  his  all-important  task,  some  person 
should  be  at  hand  to  describe  what  he  saw,  or  pro- 
fessed to  see,  and  commit  to  paper  what  he  heard,  or 


70  WITCH, 

professed  to  hear ;  and  a  seer  with  a  lively  imagina- 
tion and  a  fluent  tongue  could  go  very  far  in  both 
directions.  This  humbler,  secondary  position  Dee  re- 
served for  himself.  Probably  his  invention  was  not 
sufficiently  fertile  for  the  part  of  a  medium,  or  else  he 
was  too  much  in  earnest  to  practise  an  intentional 
deception.  As  the  crystal  showed  him  nothing,  he 
himself  said  so,  and  looked  about  for  someone  more 
sympathetic,  or  less  conscientious.  His  choice  fell  at 
first  on  a  man  named  Barnabas  Saul,  and  he  records 
in  his  diary  how,  on  October  9,  1581,  this  man  'was 
strangely  troubled  by  a  spiritual  creature  about  mid- 
night.' In  a  MS.  preserved  in  the  British  Museum, 
he  relates  some  practices  which  took  place  on 
December  2,  beginning  his  account  with  this  state- 
ment :  '  I  willed  the  skryer,  named  Saul,  to  looke  into 
my  great  crystalline  globe,  if  God  had  sent  his  holy 
angel  Azrael,  or  no.'  But  Saul  was  a  fellow  of  small 
account,  with  a  very  limited  inventive  faculty,  and  on 
March  6, 158 2, he  was  obliged  to  confess  'that  he  neither 
heard  nor  saw  any  spiritual  creature  any  more.'  Dee 
and  his  inefficient,  unintelligent  skryer  then  quarrelled, 
and  the  latter  was  dismissed,  leaving  behind  him  an 
unsavoury  reputation. 

EDWARD    KELLY. 

Soon  afterwards  our  magician  made  the  acquaint- 
ance of  a  certain  Edward  Kelly  (or  Talbot),  who  was 
in  every  way  fitted  for  the  mediumistic  role.  He  was 
clever,  plausible,  impudent,  unscrupulous,  and  a 
most  accomplished  liar.  A  native  of  Worcester, 


CHAP.   II.]  EDWARD    KELLY.  71 

where  he  was  born  in  1555,  he  was  bred  up,  accord- 
ing to  one  account,  as  a  druggist,  according  to 
another  as  a  lawyer;  but  all  accounts  agree  that  he 
became  an  adept  in  every  kind  of  knavery.  He  was 
pilloried,  and  lost  his  ears  (or  at  least  was  condemned 
to  lose  them)  at  Lancaster,  for  the  offence  of  coming, 
or  for  forgery ;  afterwards  retired  to  Wales,  assumed 
the  name  of  Kelly,  and  practised  as  a  conjurer  and 
alchemist.  A  story  is  told  of  him  which  illustrates  the 
man's  unhesitating  audacity,  or,  at  all  events,  the 
notoriety  of  his  character:  that  he  carried  with  him 
one  night  into  the  park  of  Walton-le-Dale,  near 
Preston,  a  man  who  thirsted  after  a  knowledge  of  the 
future,  and,  when  certain  incantations  had  been  com- 
pleted, caused  his  servants  to  dig  up  a  corpse,  in- 
terred only  the  day  before,  that  he  might  compel  it  to 
answer  his  questions. 

How  he  got  introduced  to  Dr.  Dee  I  do  not  profess 
to  know ;  but  I  am  certainly  disinclined  to  accept  the 
wronderful  narrative  which  Mr.  Waite  renders  in  so 
agreeable  a  style — that  Kelly,  during  his  Welsh 
sojourn,  was  shown  an  old  manuscript  which  "his 
landlord,  an  innkeeper,  had  obtained  under  peculiar 
circumstances.  '  It  had  been  discovered  in  the  tomb 
of  a  bishop  who  had  been  buried  in  a  neighbouring 
church,  and  whose  tomb  had  been  sacrilegiously  up- 
torn  by  some  fanatics/  in  the  hope  of  securing  the 
treasures  reported  to  be  concealed  within  it.  They 
found  nothing,  however,  but  the  aforesaid  manuscript, 
and  two  small  ivory  bottles,  respectively  containing  a 
ponderous  white  and  red  powder.  '  These  pearls 


72  WITCH,  WARLOCK,  AND  MAGICIAN.        [BOOK  I. 

beyond  price  were  rejected  by  the  pigs  of  apostasy : 
one  of  them  was  shattered  on  the  spot,  and  its 
ruddy,  celestine  contents  for  the  most  part  lost.  The 
remnant,  together  with  the  remaining  bottle  and  the 
unintelligible  manuscript,  were  speedily  disposed  of 
to  the  innkeeper  in  exchange  for  a  skinful  of  wine.' 
The  innkeeper,  in  his  turn,  parted  with  them  for  one 
pound  sterling  to  Master  Edward  Kelly,  who,  be- 
lieving he  had  obtained  a  hermetic  treasure,  hastened 
to  London  to  submit  it  to  Dr.  Dee. 

This  accomplished  and  daring  knave  was  engaged 
by  the  credulous  doctor  as  his  skryer,  at  a  salary  of 
£50  per  annum,  with  'board  and  lodging,'  and  all  ex- 
penses paid.  These  were  liberal  terms ;  but  it  must  be 
admitted  that  Kelly  earned  them.  Now,  indeed,  the 
crystal  began  to  justify  its  reputation !  Spirits 
came  as  thick  as  blackberries,  and  voices  as  numerous 
as  those  of  rumour  !  Kelly's  amazing  fertility  of 
fancy  never  failed  his  employer,  upon  whose  confi- 
dence he  established  an  extraordinary  hold,  by  judici- 
ously hinting  doubts  as  to  the  propriety  of  the  work 
he  had  undertaken.  How  could  a  man  be  other  than 
trustworthy,  when  he  frankly  expressed  his  sus- 
picions of  the  mala  fides  of  the  spirits  who  responded 
to  the  summons  of  the  crystal  ?  It  was  impossible — 
so  the  doctor  argued — that  so  candid  a  medium 
could  be  an  impostor,  and  while  resenting  the  impu- 
tations cast  upon  the  i  spiritual  creatures,'  he  came  to 
believe  all  the  more  strongly  in  the  man  who 
slandered  them.  The  difference  of  opinion  gave  rise, 
of  course,  to  an  occasional  quarrel.  On  one  occasion 


CHAP.   II.]  EDWARD    KELLY.  73 

(in  April,  1582)  Kelly  specially  provoked  his  em- 
ployer by  roundly  asserting  that  the  spirits  were 
demons  sent  to  lure  them  to  their  destruction;  and 
by  complaining  that  he  was  confined  in  Dee's  house 
as  in  a  prison,  and  that  it  would  be  better  for  him  to 
be  near  Cotsall  Plain,  where  he  might  walk  abroad 
without  danger. 

Some  time  in  1583  a  certain  c  Lord  Lasky,'  that  is, 
Albert  Laski  or  Alasco,  prince  or  waiwode  of  Siradia 
in  Poland,  and  a  guest  at  Elizabeth's  Court,  made 
frequent  visits  to  Dee's  house,  and  was  admitted  to 
the  spirit  exhibitions  of  the  crystal.  It  has  been  sug- 
gested that  Kelly  had  conceived  some  ambitious  pro- 
jects, which  he  hoped  to  realize  through  the  agency 
of  this  Polish  noble,  and  that  he  made  use  of  the 
crystal  to  work  upon  his  imagination.  Thence- 
forward the  spirits  were  continually  hinting  at  great 
European  revolutions,  and  uttering  vague  predictions 
of  some  extraordinary  good  fortune  which  was  in  pre- 
paration for  Alasco.  On  May  28  Dee  and  Kelly 
were  sitting  in  the  doctor's  study,  discussing  the 
prince's  affairs,  when  suddenly  appeared — perhaps  it 
was  an  optical  trick  of  the  ingenious  Kelly — '  a 
spiritual  creature,  like  a  pretty  girl  of  seven  or  nine 
years  of  age,  attired  on  her  head,  with  her  hair  rowled 
up  before,  and  hanging  down  very  long  behind,  with 
a  gown  of  soy,  changeable  green  and  red,  and  with  a 
train  ;  she  seemed  to  play  up  and  down,  and  seemed 
to  go  in  and  out  behind  my  books,  lying  in  heaps ; 
and  as  she  should  ever  go  between  them,  the  books 
seemed  to  give  place  sufficiently,  dividing  one  heap 


74  WITCH,  WARLOCK,  AND  MAGICIAN.      [BOOK  II. 

from  the  other  while  she  passed  between  them. 
And  so  I  considered,  and  heard  the  diverse  reports 
which  E.  K.  made  unto  this  pretty  maid,  and  I  said, 
"  Whose  maiden  are  you  ?"  Here  follows  the  con- 
versation'— inane  and  purposeless  enough,  and  yet 
deemed  worthy  of  preservation  by  the  credulous 
doctor : 

DOCTOR  DEE'S  CONVERSATION  WITH  THE  SPIRITUAL  CREATURE. 

SHE.  Whose  man  are  you  1 

DEE.  I  am  the  servant  of  God,  both  by  my  bound  duty,  and 
also  (I  hope)  by  His  adoption. 

A  VOICE.  You  shall  be  beaten  if  you  tell. 

SHE.  Am  not  I  a  fine  maiden  1  give  me  leave  to  play  in  your 
house  ;  my  mother  told  me  she  would  come  and  dwell  here. 

(She  went  up  and  down  with  most  lively  gestures  of  a  young 
girl  playing  by  herself,  and  divers  times  another  spake 
to  her  from  the  corner  of  my  study  by  a  great  perspective 
glasse,  but  none  was  seen  beside  herself.) 

SHE.  Shall  1 1  I  will.  (Now  she  seemed  to  answer  me  in  the 
foresaid  corner  of  my  study.)  I  pray  you  let  me  tarry  a  little  1 
(Speaking  to  me  in  the  foresaid  corner.) 

DEE.  Tell  me  what  you  are. 

SHE.  I  pray  you  let  me  play  with  you  a  little,  and  I  will  tell 
you  who  I  am. 

DEE.  In  the  name  of  Jesus  then,  tell  me. 

SHE.  I  rejoice  in  the  name  of  Jesus,  and  I  am  a  poor  little 
maiden  ;  I  am  the  last  but  one  of  my  mother's  children ;  I  have 
little  baby  children  at  home. 

DEE.  Where  is  your  home  1 

SHE.  I  dare  not  tell  you  where  I  dwell,  I  shall  be  beaten. 

DEE.  You  shall  not  be  beaten  for  telling  the  truth  to  them  that 
love  the  truth ;  to  the  Eternal  Truth  all  creatures  must  be 
obedient. 

SHE.  I  warrant  you  I  will  be  obedient ;  my  sisters  say  they 
must  all  come  and  dwell  with  you. 

DEE.  I  desire  that  they  who  love  God  should  dwell  with  me, 
and  I  with  them. 

SHE,  I  love  you  now  you  talk  of  God. 


CHAP.   II.]  EDWARD    KELLY.  75 

DEE.  Your  eldest  sister — her  name  is  Esimeli. 

SHE.  My  sister  is  not  so  short  as  you  make  her. 

DEE.  0, 1  cry  you  mercy  \  she  is  to  be  pronounced  Esimlli  ! 

KELLY.  She  smileth ;  one  calls  her,  saying,  Come  away, 
maiden. 

SHE.  I  will  read  over  my  gentlewomen  first ;  my  master  Dee 
will  teach  me  if  I  say  amiss. 

DEE.  Eead  over  your  gentlewomen,  as  it  pleaseth  you. 

SHE.  I  have  gentlemen  and  gentlewomen  ;  look  you  here. 

KELLY.  She  bringeth  a  little  book  out  of  her  pocket.  She 
pointeth  to  a  picture  in  the  book. 

SHE.  Is  not  this  a  pretty  man  ? 

DEE.   What  is  his  name  ? 

SHE.  My  (mother)  saith  his  name  is  Edward  :  look  you,  he 
hath  a  crown  upon  his  head  ;  my  mother  saith  that  this  man  was 
Duke  of  York. 

And  so  on. 

The  question  here  suggests  itself,  Was  this  passage 
of  nonsense  Dr.  Dee's  own  invention  ?  And  has  he 
compiled  it  for  the  deception  of  posterity  ?  I  do  not 
believe  it.  It  is  my  firm  conviction  that  he  recorded 
in  perfect  good  faith — though  I  own  my  opinion  is 
not  very  complimentary  to  his  intelligence — the  ex- 
travagant rigmarole  dictated  to  him  by  the  arch- 
knave  Kelly,  who,  very  possibly,  added  to  his  many 
ingenuities  some  skill  in  the  practices  of  the  ventrilo- 
quist. No  great  amount  of  artifice  can  have  been 
necessary  for  successfully  deceiving  so  admirable  a 
subject  for  deception  as  the  credulous  Dee.  It  is 
probable  that  Dee  may  sometimes  have  suspected  he 
was  being  imposed  upon  ;  but  we  may  be  sure  he 
was  very  unwilling  to  admit  it,  and  that  he  did  his 
best  to  banish  from  his  mind  so  unwelcome  a  sus- 
picion. As  for  Kelly,  it  seems  clear  that  he  had  con- 


76  WITCH,  WARLOCK,  AND  MAGICIAN.        [BOOK  I. 

ceived  some  widely  ambitious  and  daring  scheme, 
which,  as  I  have  said,  he  hoped  to  carry  out  through 
the  instrumentality  of  Alasco,  whose  interest  he 
endeavoured  to  stimulate  by  flattering  his  vanity,  and 
representing  the  spiritual  creature  as  in  possession  of 
a  pedigree  which  traced  his  descent  from  the  old 
Norman  family  of  the  Lacys. 

With  an  easy  invention  which  would  have  done 
credit  to  the  most  prolific  of  romancists,  he  daily 
developed  the  characters  of  his  pretended  visions.* 
Consulting  the  crystal  on  June  2,  he  professed  to 
see  a  spirit  in  the  garb  of  a  husbandman,  and  this 
spirit  rhodomontaded  in  mystical  language  about 
the  great  work  Alasco  was  predestined  to  accomplish 
in  the  conversion  and  regeneration  of  the  world. 
Before  this  invisible  fictionist  retired  into  his  former 
obscurity,  Dee  petitioned  him  to  use  his  influence  on 
behalf  of  a  woman  who  had  committed  suicide,  and 
of  another  who  had  dreamed  of  a  treasure  hidden  in  a 
cellar.  Other  interviews  succeeded,  in  the  course  of 
which  much  more  was  said  about  the  coming  purifi- 
cation of  humanity,  and  it  was  announced  that  a  new 
code  of  laws,  moral  and  religious,  would  be  entrusted 

*  '  Adeo  viro  prae  credulo  errore  jam  factus  sui  impos  et 
mente  captus,  et  Daemones,  quo  arctius  horrendis  hisce  Sacris 
adhserescent  illius  ambition!  vanae  summse  potestatis  in  Patria 
adipiscendse  spe  et  expectatione  lene  euntis  ilium  non  solius 
Polonise  sed  alterius  quoque  regni,  id  est  primo  Polonise,  deinde 
alterius,  viz.  Moldavise  Kegem  fore,  et  sub  quo  magnse  universi 
mundi  mutationes  incepturas  esse,  Judseos  convertendos,  et  ab  illo 
Sarsemos  et  Ethnicos  vexillo  crucis  superandos,  facili  ludifi- 
carentur.' — Dr.  Thomas  Smith,  '  Vitse  Eruditissimorum  ac  lllus- 
trium  Virorum,'  London,  1707.  *  Vita  Joannis  Dee,'  p.  25. 


CHAP.   II.]  EDWARD    KELLY.  77 

to  Dee  and  his  companions.  What  a  pity  that  this 
code  was  never  forthcoming  !  A  third  spirit,  a 
maiden  named  Galerah,  made  her  appearance,  all 
whose  revelations  bore  upon  Alasco,  and  the  great- 
ness for  which  he  was  reserved  :  '  I  say  unto  thee,  his 
name  is  in  the  Book  of  Life.  The  sun  shall  not  passe 
his  course  before  he  be  a  king.  His  counsel  shall 
breed  alteration  of  his  State,  yea,  of  the  whole  world. 
What  wouldst  thou  know  of  him  ?' 

'  If  his  kingdom  shall  be  of  Poland/  answered  Dee, 
'  in  what  land  else  ?' 

'  Of  two  kingdoms/  answered  Galerah. 

'  Which  ?  I  beseech  you.' 

4  The  one  thou  hast  repeated,  and  the  other  he 
seeketh  as  his  right.' 

'  God  grant  him/  exclaimed  the  pious  doctor, 
'  sufficient  direction  to  do  all  things  so  as  may  please 
the  highest  of  his  calling.' 

*  He  shall  want  no  direction/  replied  Galerah,  'in 
anything  he  desireth.' 

Whether  Kelly's  invention  began  to  fail  him,  or 
whether  it  was  a  desire  to  increase  his  influence  over 
his  dupe,  I  will  not  decide  ;  but  at  this  time  he 
revived  his  pretended  conscientious  scruples  against 
dealing  with  spirits,  whom  he  calumniously  declared 
to  be  ministers  of  Satan,  and  intimated  his  intention 
of  departing  from  the  unhallowed  precincts  of  Mort- 
lake.  But  the  doctor  could  not  bear  with  equanimity 
the  loss  of  a  skryer  who  rendered  such  valuable  service, 
and  watched  his  movements  with  the  vigilance  of 
alarm.  It  was  towards  the  end  of  June,  the  month 


78  WITCH,  WARLOCK,  AND  MAGICIAN.        [BOOK  I. 

made  memorable  by  such  important  revelations,  that 
Kelly  announced,  one  day,  his  design  of  riding  from 
Mortlake  to  Islington,  on  some  private  business. 
The  doctor's  fears  were  at  once  awakened,  and  he  fell 
into  a  condition  of  nervous  excitement,  which,  no 
doubt,  was  exactly  what  Kelly  had  hoped  to  pro- 
voke. '  I  asked  him,'  says  Dee,  ;  why  he  so  hasted  to 
ride  thither,  and  I  said  if  it  were  to  ride  to  Mr. 
Henry  Lee,  I  would  go  thither  also,  to  be  acquainted 
with  him,  seeing  now  I  had  so  good  leisure,  being 
eased  of  the  book  writing.  Then  he  said,  that  one 
told  him,  the  other  day,  that  the  Duke  (Alasco)  did 
but  flatter  him,  and  told  him  other  things,  both 
against  the  Duke  and  me.  I  answered  for  the  Duke 
and  myself,  and  also  said  that  if  the  forty  pounds' 
annuity  which  Mr.  Lee  did  offer  him  was  the  chief 
cause  of  his  minde  setting  that  way  (contrary  to 
many  of  his  former  promises  to  me),  that  then  I 
would  assure  him  of  fifty  pounds  yearly,  and  would 
do  my  best,  by  following  of  my  suit,  to  bring  it  to 
pass  as  soon  as  I  possibly  could,  and  thereupon  did 
make  him  promise  upon  the  Bible.  Then  Edward 
Kelly  again  upon  the  same  Bible  did  sweare  unto  me 
constant  friendship,  and  never  to  forsake  me  ;  and, 
moreover,  said  that  unless  this  had  so  fallen  out,  he 
would  have  gone  beyond  the  seas,  taking  ship  at 
Newcastle  within  eight  days  next.  And  so  we  plight 
our  faith  each  to  other,  taking  each  other  by  the 
hand  upon  these  points  of  brotherly  and  friendly 
fidelity  during  life,  which  covenant  I  beseech  God 
to  turn  to  His  honour,  glory,  and  service,  and  the 


CHAP.   II.]  EDWARD    KELLY.  79 

comfort  of  our  brethren  (His  children)  here  on 
earth/ 

This  concordat,  however,  was  of  brief  duration. 
Kelly,  who  seems  to  have  been  in  fear  of  arrest.*  still 
threatened  to  quit  Dee's  service ;  and  by  adroit 
pressure  of  this  kind,  and  by  unlimited  promises  to 
Alasco,  succeeded  in  persuading  his  two  confederates 
to  leave  England  clandestinely,  and  seek  an  asylum 
on  Alasco's  Polish  estates.  Dee  took  with  him  his 
second  wife,  Jane  Fromond,  to  whom  he  had  been 
married  in  February,  1578,  his  son  Arthur  (then 
about  four  years  old),  and  his  children  by  his  first 
wife.  Kelly  was  also  accompanied  by  his  wife  and 
family. 

On  the  night  of  September  21,  1583,  in  a  storm 
of  rain  and  wind,  they  left  Mortlake  by  water, 
and  dropped  down  the  river  to  a  point  four  or  five 
miles  below  Gravesend,  wrhere  they  embarked  on 
board  a  Danish  ship,  which  they  had  hired  to  take 
them  to  Holland.  But  the  violence  of  the  gale  was 
such  that  they  were  glad  to  transfer  themselves,  after 
a  narrow  escape  from  shipwreck,  to  some  fishing- 
smacks,  which  landed  them  at  Queenborough,  in  the 
Isle  of  Sheppey,  in  safety.  There  they  remained  until 
the  gale  abated,  and  then  crossed  the  Channel  to 
Brill  on  the  30th.  Proceeding  through  Holland  and 
Friesland  to  Embden  and  Bremen,  they  thence  made 
their  way  to  Stettin,  in  Pomerania,  arriving  on 
Christmas  Day,  and  remaining  until  the  middle  of 
January. 

*  He  was  suspected  of   coining   false  money,   bufc  Dr.   Dee 
declares  he  was  innocent.     (June,  1583.) 


80  WITCH,   WARLOCK,  AND  MAGICIAN.        [BOOK  I. 

Meanwhile,  Kelly  was  careful  not  to  intermit  those 
revelations   from  the   crystal  which   kept   alive   the 
flame  of  credulous  hope  in   the  bosom   of  his   two 
dupes,  and  he  was  especially  careful  to  stimulate  the 
ambition    of   Alasco,    whose    impoverished    finances 
could  ill   bear  the   burden   imposed   upon   them   of 
supporting  so  considerable  a  company.     They  reached 
Siradia  on  February  3,  1584,  and  there  the  spirits 
suddenly  changed  the  tone  of  their  communications  ; 
for    Kelly,     having    unexpectedly    discovered     that 
Alasco's  resources  were  on  the  brink  of  exhaustion, 
was   accordingly  prepared   to   fling  him  aside  with- 
out   remorse.       The    first    spiritual    communication 
was  to  the  effect  that,  on   account  of  his   sins,  he 
would  no  longer  be  charged  with  the  regeneration  of 
the  world,  but  he  was  promised   possession  of  the 
Kingdom  of  Moldavia.     The  next  was  an  order  to 
Dee  and  his  companions  to  leave  Siradia,  and  repair 
to  Cracow,  where  Kelly  hoped,  no  doubt,  to  get  rid 
of  the  Polish  prince  more  easily.     Then  the  spirits 
began  to  speak  at  shorter  intervals,  their  messages 
varying  greatly  in  tone  and   purport,  according,  I 
suppose,  as  Alasco's  pecuniary  supplies  increased  or 
diminished  ;    but  eventually,  when  all   had  suffered 
severely  from  want  of  money,  for  it  would  seem  that 
their  tinctures    and  powders  never  yielded  them  as 
much  as   an  ounce   of  gold,   the  spirits    summarily 
dismissed  the  unfortunate  Alasco,   ordered  Dee  and 
Kelly  to  repair  to  Prague,  and  entrusted  Dee  with  a 
Divine  communication  to  Rudolph  II.,  the  Emperor 
of  Germany. 


CHAP.   II.]  EDWARD    KELLY.  81 

Quarrels  often  occurred  between  the  two  adepts 
during  the  Cracow  period.  In  these  Kelly  was 
invariably  the  prime  mover,  and  his  object  was 
always  the  same  :  to  confirm  his  influence  over  the 
man  he  had  so  egregiously  duped.  At  Prague,  Dee 
was  received  by  the  Imperial  Court  with  the  distinc- 
tion due  to  his  well-known  scholarship ;  but  no 
credence  was  given  to  his  mission  from  the  spirits, 
and  his  pretensions  as  a  magician  were  politely 
ignored.  Nor  was  he  assisted  with  any  pecuniary 
benevolences ;  and  the  man  who  through  his  crystal 
and  his  skryer  had  apparently  unlimited  control  over 
the  inhabitants  of  the  spiritual  world  could  not  count 
with  any  degree  of  certainty  upon  his  daily  bread. 
He  failed,  moreover,  to  obtain  a  second  interview 
with  the  Emperor.  On  attending  at  the  palace,  he 
was  informed  that  the  Emperor  had  gone  to  his 
country  seat,  or  else  that  he  had  just  ridden  forth  to 
enjoy  the  pleasures  of  the  chase,  or  that  his  imperfect 
acquaintance  with  the  Latin  tongue  prevented  him 
from  conferring  with  Dee  personally  ;  and  eventually, 
at  the  instigation  of  the  Papal  nuncio,  Dee  was  ordered 
to  depart  from  the  Imperial  territories  (May,  1586). 

The  discredited  magician  then  betook  himself  to 
Erfurt,  and  afterwards  to  Cassel.  He  would  fain 
have  visited  Italy,  where  he  anticipated  a  'cordial 
welcome  at  those  Courts  which  patronized  letters 
and  the  arts,  but  he  was  privately  warned  that  at 
Rome  an  accusation  of  heresy  and  magic  had  been 
preferred  against  him,  and  he  had  no  desire  to  fall 
into  the  fangs  of  the  Inquisition.  In  the  autumn 

6 


82  WITCH,  WARLOCK,  AND  MAGICIAN.        [BOOK  I. 

of  1586,  the  Imperial  prohibition  having  apparently 
been  withdrawn,  he  followed  Kelly  into  Bohemia  ; 
and  in  the  following  year  we  find  both  of  them 
installed  as  guests  of  a  wealthy  nobleman,  named 
Rosenberg,  at  his  castle  of  Trebona.  Here  they 
renewed  their  intercourse  with  the  spirit  world,  and 
their  operations  in  the  transmutation  of  metals. 
Dee  records  how,  on  December  9,  he  reached  the 
point  of  projection  !  Cutting  a  piece  out  of  a  brass 
warming-pan,  he  converted  it — by  merely  heating  it 
in  the  fire,  and  pouring  on  it  a  few  drops  of  the 
magical  elixir — a  kind  of  red  oil,  according  to  some 
authorities — into  solid,  shining  silver.  And  there 
goes  an  idle  story  that  he  sent  both  the  pan  and  the 
piece  of  silver  to  Queen  Elizabeth,  so  that,  with  her 
own  eyes,  she  might  see  how  exactly  they  tallied, 
and  that  the  piece  had  really  been  cut  out  of  the 
pan !  About  the  same  time,  it  is  said,  the  two 
magicians  launched  into  a  profuse  expenditure, — 
Kelly,  on  one  of  his  maid -servants  getting  married, 
giving  away  gold  rings  to  the  value  of  £4,000.  Yet, 
meanwhile,  Dee  and  Kelly  were  engaged  in  sharp 
contentions,  because  the  spirits  fulfilled  none  of  the 
promises  made  by  the  latter,  who,  his  invention 
(I  suppose)  being  exhausted,  resolved,  in  April, 
1587,  to  resign  his  office  of  '  skryer/  and  young 
Arthur  Dee  then  made  an  attempt  to  act  in  his 
stead. 

The  conclusion  I  have  arrived  at,  after  studying 
the  careers  and  characters  of  our  two  worthies,  is 
that  they  were  wholly  unfitted  for  each  other's 


CHAP.   II.]  EDWARD    KELLY.  83 

society  ;  a  barrier  of  '  incompatibility '  rose  straitly 
between  them.  Dee  was  in  earnest  ;  Kelly  was 
practising  a  sham.  Dee  pursued  a  shadow  which 
he  believed  to  be  a  substance  ;  Kelly  knew  that  the 
shadow  was  nothing  more  than  a  shadow.  Dee  was 
a  man  of  rare  scholarship  and  considerable  intel- 
lectual power,  though  of  a  credulous  and  supersti- 
tious temper ;  Kelly  was  superficial  and  ignorant, 
but  clever,  astute,  and  ingenious,  and  by  no  means 
prone  to  fall  into  delusions.  The  last  experiment 
which  he  made  on  Dee's  simple-mindedness  stamps 
the  man  as  the  rogue  and  knave  he  was  ;  while  it 
illustrates  the  truth  of  the  preacher's  complaint  that 
there  is  nothing  new  under  the  sun.  The  doctrine 
of  free  marriage  propounded  by  American  enthusiasts 
was  a  remanet  from  the  ethical  system  of  Mr.  Edward 
Kelly. 

Kelly  had  long  been  on  bad  terms  with  his  wife, 
and  had  conceived  a  passionate  attachment  towards 
Mrs.  Dee,  who  was  young  and  charming,  graceful  in 
person,  and  attractive  in  manner.  To  gratify  his 
desires,  he  resorted  to  his  old  machinery  of  the 
crystal  and  the  spirits,  and  soon  obtained  a  revela- 
tion that  it  was  the  Divine  pleasure  he  and  Dr.  Dee 
should  exchange  partners.  Demoralized  and  abased 
as  Dee  had  become  through  his  intercourse  with 
Kelly,  he  shrank  at  first  from  a  proposal  so  contrary 
to  the  teaching  and  tenor  of  the  religion  he  pro- 
fessed, and  suggested  that  the  revelation  could 
mean  nothing  more  than  that  they  ought  to  live  on 

6—2 


84  WITCH,  WARLOCK,  AND  MAGICIAN.         [BOOK  I. 

a  footing  of  cordial  friendship.  But  the  spirits 
insisted  on  a  literal  interpretation  of  their  com- 
mand. Dee  yielded,  comparing  himself  with  much 
unction  to  Abraham,  who,  in  obedience  to  the  Divine 
will,  consented  to  the  sacrifice  of  Isaac.  The  parallel, 
however,  did  not  hold  good,  for  Abraham  saved  his 
son,  whereas  Dr.  Dee  lost  his  wife  ! 

It  was  then  Kelly's  turn  to  affect  a  superior 
morality,  and  he  earnestly  protested  that  the  spirits 
could  not  be  messengers  from  heaven,  but  were 
servants  of  Satan.  Whereupon  they  then  declared  that 
he  was  no  longer  worthy  to  act  as  their  interpreter. 
But  why  dwell  longer  on  this  unpleasant  farce  ?  By 
various  means  of  cajolery  and  trickery,  Kelly  con- 
trived to  accomplish  his  design. 

This  communistic  arrangement,  however,  did  not 
long  work  satisfactorily — at  least,  so  far  as  the  ladies 
were  concerned  ;  and  one  can  easily  understand  that 
Mrs.  Dee  would  object  to  the  inferior  position  she 
occupied  as  Kelly's  paramour.  However  this  may  be, 
Dee  and  Kelly  parted  company  in  January,  1589  ;  the 
former,  according  to  his  own  account,  delivering  up  to 
the  latter  the  mysterious  elixir  and  other  substances 
which  they  had  made  use  of  in  the  transmutation  of 
metals.  Dee  had  begun  to  turn  his  eyes  wistfully 
towards  his  native  country,  and  welcomed  with  un- 
feigned delight  a  gracious  message  from  Queen  Eliza- 
beth, assuring  him  of  a  friendly  reception.  In  the 
spring  he  took  his  departure  from  Trebona ;  and  it 
is  said  that  he  travelled  with  a  pomp  and  circum- 
stance worthy  of  an  ambassador,  though  it  is  difficult 


CHAP.   II.]  EDWARD   KELLY.  85 

to  reconcile  this  statement  with  his  constant  com- 
plaints of  poverty.  Perhaps,  after  all,  his  three 
coaches,  with  four  horses  to  each  coach,  his  two  or 
three  waggons  loaded  with  baggage  and  stores, 
and  his  hired  escort  of  six  to  twenty-four  soldiers, 
whose  business  it  was  to  protect  him  from  the 
enemies  he  supposed  to  be  lying  in  wait  for  him, 
existed  only,  like  the  philosopher's  stone,  in  the 
imagination  !  He  landed  at  Gravesend  on  Decem- 
ber 2,  was  kindly  received  by  the  Queen  at  Richmond 
a  day  or  two  afterwards,  and  before  the  year  had  run 
out  was  once  more  quietly  settled  in  his  house  '  near 
the  riverside '  at  Mortlake. 

Kelly,  whom  the  Emperor  Maximilian  II.  had 
knighted  and  created  Marshal  of  Bohemia,  so  strong 
a  conviction  of  his  hermetic  abilities  had  he  impressed 
on  the  Imperial  mind,  remained  in  Germany.  But 
the  ingenious,  plausible  rogue  was  kept  under  such 
rigid  restraint,  in  order  that  he  might  prepare  an 
adequate  quantity  of  the  transmuting  stone  or 
powder,  that  he  wearied  of  it,  and  one  night  en- 
deavoured to  escape.  Tearing  up  the  sheets  of  his 
bed,  he  twisted  them  into  a  rope,  with  which  to 
lower  himself  from  the  tower  where  he  was  confined. 
But  he  was  a  man  of  some  bulk  ;  the  rope  gave  way 
beneath  his  weight,  and  falling  to  the  ground,  he 
received  such  severe  injuries  that  in  a  few  days  he 
expired  (1593). 

Dee's  later  life  was,  as  Godwin  remarks,  'bound 
in  shallows  and  miseries.'  He  had  forfeited  the 


86  WITCH,  WARLOCK,  AND  MAGICIAN.        [BOOK  I. 

respect  of  serious-minded  men  by  his  unworthy  con- 
federacy with  an  unscrupulous  adventurer.  The 
Queen  still  treated  him  with  some  degree  of  con- 
sideration, though  she  had  lost  all  faith  in  his 
magical  powers,  and  occasionally  sent  him  assistance. 
The  unfortunate  man  never  ceased  to  weary  her  with 
the  repetition  of  his  trials  and  troubles,  and  strongly 
complained  that  he  had  been  deprived  of  the  income 
of  his  two  small  benefices  during  his  six  years' 
residence  on  the  Continent.  He  related  the  sad  tale 
of  the  destruction  of  his  library  and  apparatus  by 
an  ignorant  mob,  which  had  broken  into  his  house 
immediately  after  his  departure  from  England,  ex- 
cited by  the  rumours  of  his  strange  magical  practices. 
He  enumerated  the  expenses  of  his  homeward 
journey,  arguing  that,  as  it  had  been  undertaken  by 
the  Queen's  command,  she  ought  to  reimburse  him. 
At  last  (in  1592)  the  Queen  appointed  two  members 
of  her  Privy  Council  to  inquire  into  the  particulars 
of  his  allegations.  These  particulars  he  accordingly 
put  together  in  a  curious  narrative,  which  bore  the 
long-winded  title  of : 

'  The  Compendious  Rehearsall  of  John  Dee,  his  dutiful  Declara" 
cion  and  Proof  of  the  Course  and  Race  of  his  Studious  Lyfe,  for 
the  Space  of  Half  e  an  Hundred  Yeares,  now  (by  God's  Favour  and 
Helpe)  fully  spent,  and  of  the  very  great  Injuries,  Damages,  and 
Indignities,  which  for  those  last  nyne  Years  he  hath  in  England 
sustained  (contrary  to  Her  Majesties  very  gracious  Will  and 
express  Commandment),  made  unto  the  Two  Honourable  Com- 
missioners, by  Her  Most  Excellent  Majesty  thereto  assigned, 
according  to  the  intent  of  the  most  humble  Supplication  of  the 
said  John,  exhibited  to  Her  Most  Gracious  Majestic  at  Hampton 
Court,  Anno  1592,  November  9.' 


CHAP.   II.]  EDWARD    KELLY.  87 

It  has  been  remarked  that  in  this  '  Compendious 
Eehearsal '  he  alludes  neither  to  his  magic  crystal, 
with  its  spiritualistic  properties,  nor  to  the  wonderful 
powder  or  elixir  of  transmutation.  He  founds  his 
claim  to  the  Queen's  patronage  solely  upon  his 
intellectual  eminence  and  acknowledged  scholarship. 
Nor  does  he  allude  to  his  Continental  experiences, 
except  so  far  as  relates  to  his  homeward  journey. 
But  he  is  careful  to  recapitulate  all  his  services,  and 
the  encomiastic  notices  they  had  drawn  from  various 
quarters,  while  he  details  his  losses  with  the  most 
elaborate  minuteness.  The  quaintest  part  of  his 
lamentable  and  most  fervent  petition  is,  however,  its 
conclusion.  Having  shown  that  he  has  tried  and  ex- 
hausted every  means  of  raising  money  for  the  support 
of  his  family,  he  concludes  : 

*  Therefore,  seeing  the  blinded  lady,  Fortune,  doth  not  governe 
in  this  commonwealth,  butjustitia  and  prudentia,  and  that  in  better 
order  than  inTullie's  "Republica,"  or  bookes  of  offices,  they  are  laied 
forth  to  be  followed  and  performed,  most  reverently  and  earnestly 
(yea,  in  manner  with  bloody  teares  of  heart),  I  and  my  wife,  our 
seaven  children,  and  our  servants  (seaventeene  of  us  in  all)  do  this 
day  make  our  petition  unto  your  Honors,  that  upon  all  godly, 
charitable,  and  just  respects  had  of  all  that,  which  this  day  you 
have  seene,  heard,  and  perceived,  you  will  make  such  report  unto 
her  Most  Excellent  Majestie  (with  humble  request  for  speedy 
reliefes)  that  we  be  not  constrained  to  do  or  suffer  otherwise  than 
becometh  Christians,  and  true,  and  f aithfull,  and  obedient  subjects 
to  doe  or  suffer  ;  and  all  for  want  of  due  mainteynance.' 

The  main  object  Dee  had  in  view  was  the  master- 
ship of  St.  Cross's  Hospital,  which  Elizabeth  had 
formerly  promised  him.  This  he  never  received ; 
but  in  December,  1594,  he  was  appointed  to  the 


88  WITCH,  WARLOCK,  AXD  MAGICIAN.        [BOOK  I. 

Chancellorship  of  St.  Paul's  Cathedral,  which  in  the 
following  year  he  exchanged  for  the  wardenship  of 
the  College  at  Manchester.  He  still  continued  his 
researches  into  supernatural  mysteries,  employing 
several  persons  in  succession  as  '  skryers  ' ;  but  he 
found  no  one  so  fertile  in  invention  as  Kelly,  and  the 
crystal  uttered  nothing  more  oracular  than  answers 
to  questions  about  lovers'  quarrels,  hidden  treasures, 
and  petty  thefts — the  common  stock-in-trade  of  the 
conjurer.  In  1602  or  1604,  he  retired  from  his 
Manchester  appointment,  and  sought  the  quiet  and 
seclusion  of  his  favourite  Mortlake.  His  renown  as 
'  a  magician  '  had  greatly  increased — not  a  little,  it 
would  seem,  to  his  annoyance;  for  on  June  5,  1604, 
we  find  that  he  presented  a  petition  to  James  I.  at 
Greenwich,  soliciting  his  royal  protection  against  the 
wrong  done  to  him  by  enemies  who  mocked  him  as 
*  a  conjurer,  or  caller,  or  invocator  of  devils/  and 
solemnly  asserting  that  4  of  all  the  great  number  of 
the  very  strange  and  frivolous  fables  or  histories 
reported  and  told  of  him  (as  to  have  been  of  his 
doing)  none  were  true.'  It  is  said  that  the  treat- 
ment Dee  experienced  at  this  time  was  the  primary 
cause  of  the  Act  passed  against  personal  slander 
(1604) — a  proof  of  legislative  wisdom  which  drew 
from  Dee  a  versified  expression  of  gratitude — in 
which,  let  us  hope,  the  sincerity  of  the  gratitude  is 
not  to  be  measured  by  the  quality  of  the  verse.  It  is 
addressed  to  '  the  Honorable  Members  of  the 
Commons  in  the  Present  Parliament/  and  here  is  a 
specimen  of  it,  which  will  show  that,  though  Dee's 


CHAP.   II.]  EDWAKD    KELLY.  89 

crystal  might  summon  the  spirits,  it  had  no  control 
over  the  Muses : 

*  The  honour,  due  unto  you  all, 

And  reverence,  to  you  each  one 
I  do  first  yield  most  spe-ci-all ; 

Grant  me  this  time  to  heare  my  mone. 

'  Now  (if  you  will)  full  well  you  may 

Fowle  sclaundrous  tongues  for  ever  tame  ; 
And  helpe  the  truth  to  beare  some  sway 
In  just  defence  of  a  good  name.' 

Thenceforward  Dee  sinks  into  almost  total  ob- 
scurity. His  last  years  were  probably  spent  in  great 
tribulation  ;  and  the  man  who  had  dreamed  of  con- 
verting, Midas-like,  all  he  touched  into  gold,  seems  fre- 
quently to  have  wanted  bread.  It  was  a  melancholy 
ending  to  a  career  which  might  have  been  both  useful 
and  brilliant,  if  his  various  scholarship  and  mental 
energy  had  not  been  expended  upon  a  delusion.  Un- 
fortunately for  himself,  Dee,  with  all  his  excellent 
gifts,  wanted  that  greatest  gift  of  all,  a  sound  judgment. 
His  excitable  fancy  and  credulous  temper  made  him 
the  dupe  of  his  own  wishes,  and  eventually  the  tool 
of  a  knave  far  inferior  to  himself  in  intellectual  power, 
but  surpassing  him  in  strength  of  will,  in  force  of 
character,  in  audacity  and  inventiveness.  Both 
knave  and  dupe  made  but  sorry  work  of  their  lives. 
Kelly,  as  we  have  seen,  broke  his  neck  in  attempting 
to  escape  from  a  German  prison,  and  Dee  expired  in 
want  and  dishonour,  without  a  friend  to  receive  his 
last  sigh. 

He  died  at  Mortlake  in  1608,  and  was  buried  in 


90  WITCH,  WARLOCK,  AND  MAGICIAN.       [BOOK  1. 

the  chancel  of  Mortlake  Church,  where,  long  after- 
wards, Aubrey,  the  gossiping  antiquary,  was  shown 
an  old  marble  slab  as  belonging  to  his  tomb. 

His  son  Arthur,  after  acting  as  physician  to  the 
Czar  of  Russia  and  to  our  own  Charles  L,  established 
himself  in  practice  at  Norwich,  where  he  died. 
Anthony  Wood  solemnly  records  that  this  Arthur,  in 
his  boyhood,  had  frequently  played  with  quoits  of 
gold,  which  his  father  had  cast  at  Prague  by  means 
of  his  *  stone  philosophical.'  How  often  Dee  must 
have  longed  for  some  of  those  '  quoits  '  in  his  last  sad 
days  at  Mortlake,  when  he  sold  his  books,  one  by 
one,  to  keep  himself  from  starvation! 

After  Dee's  death,  his  fame  as  a  magician  under- 
went an  extraordinary  revival;  and  in  1659,  when 
the  country  was  looking  forward  to  the  immediate 
restoration  of  its  Stuart  line  of  kings,  the  learned 
Dr.  Meric  Casaubon  thought  proper  to  publish,  in 
a  formidable  folio  volume,  the  doctor's  elaborate  re- 
port of  his — or  rather  Kelly's — supposed  conferences 
with  the  spirits — a  notable  book,  as  being  the  initial 
product  of  spiritualism  in  English  literature.  In 
his  preface  Casaubon  remarks  that,  though  Dee's 
6  carriage  in  certain  respects  seemed  to  lay  in  works  of 
darkness,  yet  all  was  tendered  by  him  to  kings  and 
princes,  and  by  all  (England  alone  excepted)  was 
listened  to  for  a  good  while  with  good  respect,  and  by 
some  for  a  long  time  embraced  and  entertained.' 
And  he  adds  that  '  the  fame  of  it  made  the  Pope 
bestir  himself,  and  filled  all,  both  learned  and  un- 
learned, with  great  wonder  and  astonishment.  .  .  . 


CHAP.   II.]  EDWARD    KELLY.  91 

As  a  whole,  it  is  undoubtedly  not  to  be  paralleled  in 
its  kind  in  any  age  or  country.' 

NOTE. 

In  the  curious  'Apologia'  published  by  Dee,  in  1595,  in  the 
form  of  a  letter  to  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  '  containing  a 
most  briefe  Discourse  Apologeticall,  with  a  plaine  Demonstration 
and  formal  Protestation,  for  the  lawfull,  sincere,  very  faithfull 
and  Christian  course  of  the  Philosophical!  studies  and  exercises  of 
a  certaine  studious  Gentleman,  an  ancient  Servant  to  her  most 
excellent  Maiesty  Koyall,'  he  furnishes  a  list  of  'sundry  Bookes 
and  Treatises '  of  which  he  was  the  author.  The  best  known  of 
his  printed  works  is  the  'Monas  Hieroglyphica,  Mathematice, 
Anagogice  que  explicata '  (1564),  dedicated  to  the  Emperor 
Maximilian.  Then  there  are  'Propse  deumata  Aphoristica ;' 
*  The  British  Monarchy,'  otherwise  called  the  '  Petty  Navy 
Koyall:  for  the  politique  security,  abundant  wealth,  and  the 
triumphant  state  of  this  kingdom  (with  God's  favour)  procuring ' 
(1576);  and  'Paralaticae  Commentationis,  Praxcosque  Nucleus 
quidam  '  (1573).  His  unpublished  manuscripts  range  over  a  wide 
field  of  astronomical,  philosophical,  and  logical  inquiry.  The 
most  important  seem  to  be  '  The  first  great  volume  of  famous  and 
rich  Discoveries/  containing  a  good  deal  of  speculation  about 
Solomon  and  his  Ophirian  voyage  ;  '  Prester  John,  and  the  first 
great  Cham;'  'The  Brytish  Complement  of  the  perfect  Art  of 
Navigation  ;'  '  The  Art  of  Logicke,  in  English  ;'  and  '  De  Hominis 
Corpore,  Spiritu,  et  Anima :  sive  Microcosmicum  totius  Philo 
sophise  Naturalis  Compendium.' 

The  character  drawn  of  Dr.  Dee  by  his  learned  biographer,  Dr. 
Thomas  Smith,  by  no  means  confirms  the  traditional  notion  of 
him  as  a  crafty  and  credulous  practiser  in  the  Black  Art.  It  is, 
on  the  contrary,  the  portrait  of  a  just  and  upright  man,  grave  in 
his  demeanour,  modest  in  his  manners,  abstemious  in  his  habits  ; 
a  man  of  studious  disposition  and  benevolent  temper ;  a  man  held 
in  such  high  esteem  by  his  neighbours  that  he  was  called  upon  to 
arbitrate  when  any  differences  arose  between  them ;  a  fervent 
Christian,  attentive  to  all  the  offices  of  the  Church,  and  zealous  in 
the  defence  of  her  faith. 

Here  is  the  original :  '  Si  mores  exterioremque  vitae  cultum 
contemplemur,  non  quicquam  ipsi  in  probrum  et  ignominium  verti 


92 


WITCH,  WARLOCK,  AND  MAGICIAN.        [BOOK  I. 


possit;  ut  pote  sobrius,  probus,  affectibus  sedatis,  compositisque 
moribus,  ab  omni  luxu  et  gulzi  liber,  justi  et  sequi  studiosis- 
simus,  erga  pauperes  beneficus,  vicinis  facilis  et  benignus, 
quorum  lites,  atrisque  partibus  contendentium  ad  ilium  tanquam 
ad  sapientum  arbitrum  appellantibus,  moderari  et  desidere  solebat : 
in  publicis  sacris  coetibus  et  in  orationibus  frequens,  articulorum 
Christianse  fidei,  in  quibus  omnes  Orthodoxi  conveniunt,  strenuus 
assertor,  zelo  in  hsereses,  a  primitiva  Ecclesia  damnatas,  flagrans, 
inqui  Peccorum,  qui  virginitatem  B.  Marise  ante  partum  Christ! 
in  dubium  vocavit,  accerime  invectus  :  licet  de  controversiis  inter 
Eomanenses  et  Keformatos  circa  reliqua  doctrinse  capita  non  adeo 
semperose  solicitus,  quin  sibi  in  Polonia  et  Bohemia,  ubi  religio 
ista  dominatur,  Missae  interesse  et  communicare  licere  putaverit, 
in  Anglia,  uti  antea,  post  redditum,  omnibus  Ecclesise  Anglicanae 
ritibus  conformis.'  It  must  be  admitted  that  Dr.  Smith's  Latin  is 
not  exactly  '  conformed '  to  the  Ciceronian  model. 


CHAP.  III.]  DR.    DEE'S    DIARY.  93 


CHAPTER  III. 
DR.    DEE'S    DIARY. 

I  AM  not  prepared  to  say,  with  its  modern  editor, 
that  Dr.  Dee's  Diary*  sets  the  scholar  magician's 
character  in  its  true  light  more  clearly  than  anything 
that  has  yet  been  printed;  but  I  concede  that  it 
reveals  in  a  very  striking  and  interesting  manner  the 
peculiar  features  of  his  character — his  superstitious 
credulity,  and  his  combination  of  shrewdness  and 
simplicity — as  well  as  his  interesting  habits.  I  shall 
therefore  extract  a  few  passages  to  assist  the  reader  in 
forming  his  opinion  of  a  man  who  was  certainly  in 
many  respects  remarkable. 

(i.)  I  begin  with  the  entries  for  1577: 

'  1577,  January  16th.— The  Erie  of  Leicester,  Mr.  Philip  Sidney, 
Mr.  Dyer,f  etc.,  came  to  my  house  (at  Mortlake). 

1 1577,  January  22nd. — The  Erie  of  Bedford  came  to  my  house. 

'1577,  March  llth. — My  fall  uppon  my  right  nuckel  bone,  hora, 
9  fere  mane,  wyth  oyle  of  Hypericon  (Hypericum,  or  St.  John's 
Wort)  in  twenty-four  howers  eased  above  all  hope  :  God  be 
thanked  for  such  His  goodness  of  (to  1)  His  creatures. 

*  'The  Private  Diary  of  Dr.  John  Dee,'  edited  by  J.  0.  Halliwell 
(Phillipps)  for  the  Camden  Society,  1842. 

f  This  was  Sir  Edward  Dyer,  the  friend  of  Spenser  and  Sidney, 
remembered  by  his  poem  '  My  Mind  to  me  a  Kingdom  is.' 


94  WITCH,  WARLOCK,  AND  MAGICIAN.       [BOOK  I. 

'1577,  March  24th. — Alexander  Simon,  the  Ninevite,  came  to 
me,  and  promised  me  his  service  into  Persia. 

'1577,  May  1st.— I  received  from  Mr.  William  Harbut  of 
St.  Gillian  his  notes  uppon  my  "  Monas."* 

'  1577,  May  2nd. — I  understode  of  one  Vincent  Murfryn  his 
abbominable  misusing  me  behinde  my  back  ;  Mr.  Thomas  Besbich 
told  me  his  father  is  one  of  the  cokes  of  the  Court. 

'1577,  May  20th.— I  hyred  the  barber  of  Cheswik,  Walter 
Hooper,  to  kepe  my  hedges  and  knots  in  as  good  order  as  he  saw 
them  then,  and  that  to  be  done  with  twice  cutting  in  the  yere  at 
the  least,  and  he  to  have  yerely  five  shillings,  meat  and  drink. 

'1577,  June  26th. — Elen  Lyne  gave  me  a  quarter's  warning. 

'1577,  August  19. — The  "  Hexameron  Brytanicum  "  put  to 
printing.  (Published  in  1577  with  the  title  of  "  General  and 
Rare  Memorials  pertayning  to  the  perfect  Art  of  Navigation. ") 

'  1577,  November  3rd. — William  Rogers  of  Mortlak  about  7  of 
the  clok  in  the  morning,  cut  his  own  throte,  by  the  fiende  his 
instigator. 

'  1577,  November  6th. — Sir  Umfrey  Gilbertt  cam  to  me  to 
Mortlak. 

'  1577,  November  22nd. — I  rod  to  Windsor  to  the  Q.  Majestic. 

1 1577,  November  25th. — I  spake  with  the  Quene  hora  quinta; 
I  spoke  with  Mr.  Secretary  Walsingham.J  I  declared  to  the 
Quene  her  title  to  Greenland,  Estotiland,  and  Friesland. 

4 1577,  December  1st. — I  spoke  with  Sir  Christopher  Hatton  ; 
he  was  made  Knight  that  day. 

'  1577,  December  -th. — I  went  from  the  Courte  at  Wyndsore. 

'1577,  December  30th. — Inexplissima  ilia  calumnia  de  R. 
Edwardo,  iniquissima  aliqua  ex  parte  in  me  denunciebatur :  ante 
aliquos  elapsos  diro,  sed  .  .  .  sua  sapientia  me  innocentem.' 

I  cannot  ascertain  of  what  calumny  against 
Edward  VI.  Dee  had  been  accused ;  but  it  is  to  be 
hoped  that  his  wish  was  fulfilled,  and  that  he  was 
acquitted  of  it  before  many  days  had  elapsed. 

I  have  omitted  some  items   relating    to    moneys 

*  The  'Monas  Hieroglyphica.' 

t  The  celebrated  navigator,  whose  heroic  death  is  one  of  our 
worthiest  traditions, 
'j  A  warm  and  steady  friend  to  Dr.  Dee. 


CHAP.   III.]  DR.    DEE'S    DIARY.  95 

borrowed.  It  is  sufficiently  plain,  however,  that  Dee 
never  intended  his  Diary  for  the  curious  eyes  of  the 
public,  and  that  it  mainly  consists  of  such  memoranda 
as  a  man  jots  down  for  his  private  and  personal  use. 
Assuredly,  many  of  these  would  never  have  been  re- 
corded if  Dee  had  known  or  conjectured  that  an 
inquisitive  antiquarian,  some  three  centuries  later, 
would  exhume  the  confidential  pages,  print  them  in 
imperishable  type,  and  expose  them  to  the  world's 
cold  gaze.  It  seems  rather  hard  upon  Dr.  Dee  that 
his  private  affairs  should  thus  have  become  every- 
body's property!  Perhaps,  after  all,  the  best  thing  a 
man  can  do  who  keeps  a  diary  is  to  commit  it  to  the 
flames  before  he  shuffles  off  his  mortal  coil,  lest  some 
laborious  editor  should  eventually  lay  hands  upon  it, 
and  publish  it  to  the  housetops  with  all  its  sins  upon  it ! 
But  as  in  Dr.  Dee's  case  the  offence  has  been  committed, 
I  will  not  debar  my  readers  from  profiting  by  it. 
(ii.)  1578-1581. 

1 1578,  June  30th.— I  told  Mr.  Daniel  Rogers,  Mr.  Hackluyt  of 
the  Middle  Temple  being  by,  that  Kyng  Arthur  and  King  Maty, 
both  of  them,  did  conquer  Gelindia,  lately  called  Friseland,  which 
he  so  noted  presently  in  his  written  copy  of  Mon  .  .  .  thensis  (?), 
for  he  had  no  printed  boke  thereof.' 

What  a  pity  Dr.  Dee  has  not  recorded  his  authority 
for  King  Arthur's  Northern  conquests !  The  Mr. 
Hackluyt  here  mentioned  is  the  industrious  compiler 
of  the  well-known  collection  of  early  voyages. 

Occasionally  Dee  relates  his  dreams,  as  on  Sep- 
tember 10,  1579  :  c  My  dream  of  being  naked,  and 
rny  skyn  all  overwrought  with  work,  like  some  kinde 
of  tuft  mockado,  with  crosses  blue  and  red ;  and  on 


96  WITCH,  WARLOCK,  AND  MAGICIAN.        [BOOK  I. 

my  left  arme,  about  the  arme,  in  a  wreath,  this  word 
I  red — sine  me  nihil  potestis  facer  e.' 

Sometimes  he  resorts  to  Greek  characters  while 
using  English  words : 

*  1579,  December  9th. — 0/;  viyr  (i.i  vvi<p  dp&^ib  dar  ovs  xa/a  ro  'sp 
avB  rowxjib  'ip,  ffuivy,  "  Miffrpeg  Ass,  you  up  xovxsivzd   o<p  p£/X5,  vog  va/as 
(Avffr  (3&  Zay^ccpiag  ;  (3e  op  job  %£ps,  s  ffa/.  80  vvzX  a$  dig  dod  !" 

*  1579,  December  28th. — I  reveled  to  Roger   Coke  the   gret 
secret  of  the  elixir  of  the  salt  op  ax&r&g,  ovs  VKKOV  a  wdped.' 

Other  entries  refer  to  this  Mr.  Eoger  Coke,  or 
Cooke,  who  seems  to  have  been  Dee's  pupil  or  appren- 
tice, and  at  one  time  to  have  enjoyed  his  confidence. 
They  quarrelled  seriously  in  1581. 

M581,  September  5th. — Eoger  Cook,  who  had  byn  with  me 
from  his  14  years  of  age  till  28,  of  a  melancholik  nature,  pycking 
and  devising  occasions  of  just  cause  to  depart  on  the  suddayn, 
about  4  of  the  clok  in  the  afternone  requested  of  me  lycense  to 
depart,  wheruppon  rose  whott  words  between  us ;  and  he,  imagin- 
ing with  himself  that  he  had,  the  12  of  July,  deserved  my  great 
displeasure,  and  finding  himself  barred  from  view  of  my  philo- 
sophicall  dealing  with  Mr.  Henrik,  thought  that  he  was  utterly 
recast  from  intended  goodness  toward  him.  Notwithstanding 
Roger  Cook  his  unseamely  dealing,  I  promised  him,  if  he  used 
himself  toward  me  now  in  his  absens,  one  hundred  pounds  as 
sone  as  of  my  own  clene  hability  I  myght  spare  so  much ;  and 
moreover,  if  he  used  himself  well  in  life  toward  God  and  the 
world,  I  promised  him  some  pretty  alchimicall  experiments, 
whereuppon  he  might  honestly  live.' 

1 1581,  September  7th. — Eoger  Cook  went  for  altogether  from 
me.' 

In  February,  1601,  however,  this  quarrel  was 
made  up. 

(iii.)  Of  the  learned  doctor's  colossal  credulity  the 
Diary  supplies  some  curious  proofs : 

'  1581,  March  8th. — It  was  the  8  day,  being  Wensday,  hora 
noctis  10-11,  the  strange  noyse  in  my  chamber  of  knocking ;  and 


CHAP.   III.]  DR.    DEE'S   DIARY.  97 

the  voyce,  ten  times  repeted,  somewhat  like  the  shriek  of  an  owle, 
bat  more  longly  drawn,  and  more  softly,  as  it  were  in  my 
chamber. 

'1581,  August  3rd. — All  the  night  very  strange  knocking  and 
rapping  in  my  chamber.  August  4th,  and  this  night  likewise. 

'1581,  October  9th.— Barnabas  Saul,  lying  in  the  ...  hall, 
was  strangely  trubled  by  a  spirituall  creature  about  mydnight. 

'  1582,  May  20th. — Robertus  Gardinerus  Salopiensis  lactum 
mihi  attulit  minimum  de  materia  lapidis,  divinitus  sibi  revelatus 
de  qua. 

*  1582,  May  23rd. — Robert  Gardiner  declared  unto  me  hora  4J 
a  certeyn  great  philosophicall  secret,  as  he  had  termed  it,  of  a 
spirituall  creature,  and  was  this  day  willed  to  come  to  me  and 
declare  it,  which  was  solemnly  done,  and  with  common  prayer. 

'  1590,  August  22nd. — Ann,  my  nurse,  had  long  been  tempted 
by  a  wycked  spirit :  but  this  day  it  was  evident  how  she  was 
possessed  of  him.  God  is,  hath  byn,  and  shall  be  her  protector 
and  deliverer  !  Amen. 

'  1590,  August  25th. — Anne  Frank  was  sorowful,  well  com- 
forted, and  stayed  in  God's  mercyes  acknowledging. 

'  1590,  August  26th. — At  night  I  anoynted  (in  the  name  of 
Jesus)  her  brest  with  the  holy  oyle. 

'  1590,  August  30th. — In  the  morning  she  required  to  be 
anoynted,  and  I  did  very  devoutly  prepare  myself,  and  pray  for 
virtue  and  powr,  and  Christ  his  blessing  of  the  oyle  to  the  expul- 
sion of  the  wycked,  and  then  twyce  anoynted,  the  wycked  one 
did  rest  a  while.' 

The  holy  oil,  however,  proved  of  no  effect.  The 
poor  creature  was  insane.  On  September  8  she  made 
an  attempt  to  drown  herself,  but  was  prevented.  On 
the  29th  she  eluded  the  dexterity  of  her  keeper,  and 
cut  her  throat. 

(iv.)  Occasionally  we  meet  with  references  to 
historic  events  and  names,  but,  unfortunately,  they 
are  few : 

*  1581,  February  23rd. — I  made  acquayntance  with  Joannes 
Bodonius,   in   the   Chamber   of   Presence   at   Westminster,    the 
ambassador  being  by  from  Monsieur.' 

7 


98  WITCH,  WARLOCK,  AND  MAGICIAN.        [BOOK  I. 

Bodonius,  or  Bodin,  was  the  well-known  writer 
upon  witchcraft. 

'1581,  March  23rd. — At  Mortlak  came  to  me  Hugh  Smyth, 
who  had  returned  from  Magellan  strayghts  and  Vaygatz. 

'1581,  July  12th. — The  Erie  of  Leicester  fell  fowly  out  with 
the  Erie  of  Sussex,  Lord  Chamberlayn,  calling  each  other  trayter, 
whereuppon  both  were  commanded  to  kepe  theyr  chamber  at 
Greenwich,  wher  the  court  was.' 

This  was  the  historic  quarrel,  of  which  Sir  Walter 
Scott  has  made  such  effective  use  in  his  '  Kenil- 
worth.' 

'1583,  January  13th. — On  Sonday,  the  stage  at  Paris  Garden 
fell  down  all  at  once,  being  full  of  people  beholding  the  bear- 
bay  ting.  Many  being  killed  thereby,  more  hurt,  and  all  amased. 
The  godly  expownd  it  as  a  due  plage  of  God  for  the  wickedness 
ther  used,  and  the  Sabath  day  so  profanely  spent.' 

This  popular  Sabbatarian  argument,  which  occa- 
sionally crops  up  even  in  our  own  days,  had  been 
humorously  anticipated,  half  a  century  before,  by  Sir 
Thomas  More,  in  his  'Dyalogue'  (1529):  'At  Beverley 
late,  much  of  the  people  being  at  a  bear-baiting, 
the  church  fell  suddenly  down  at  evening-time,  and 
overwhelmed  some  that  were  in  it.  A  good  fellow 
that  after  heard  the  tale  told — "  So,"  quoth  he,  "  now 
you  may  see  what  it  is  to  be  at  evening  prayers  when 
you  should  be  at  the  bear-baiting !" 

The  Paris  Garden  Theatre  at  Bankside  had  been 
erected  expressly  for  exhibitions  of  bear-baiting. 
The  charge  for  admission  was  a  penny  at  the  gate,  a 
penny  at  the  entry  of  the  scaffold  or  platform,  and  a 
penny  for  '  quiet  standing.'  During  the  Common- 
wealth this  cruel  sport  was  prohibited;  but  it  was 


CHAP.   III.]  DR.    DEE'S    DIARY.  99 

revived  at  the  Kestoration,  and  not  finally  suppressed 
until  1835. 

1 1583,  January  23rd.— The  Ryght  Honorable  Mr.  Secretary 
Walsingham  came  to  my  howse,  where  by  good  luk  he  found  Mr. 
Adrian  Gilbert  (of  the  famous  Devonshire  family  of  seamen),  and 
so  talk  was  begonne  of  North  West  Straights  discovery. 

*  1583,  February  llth. — The  Quene  lying  at  Richmond  went  to 
Mr.  Secretary  Walsingham  to  dinner ;  she  coming  by  my  dore, 
graciously  called  me  to  her,  and  so  I  went  by  her  horse  side,  as 
far  as  where  Mr.  Hudson  dwelt.  Ep  pcuitiri  a%tS  pi  o(3vffxup&\i  o<p 
/Aovvffizvpis  arars  :  di^s  (Siffdavarog  spir. 

'1583,  March  6th. — I,  and  Mr.  Adrian  Gilbert  and  John 
Davis  (the  Arctic  discoverer),  did  mete  with  Mr.  Alderman 
Barnes,  Mr.  Tounson,  Mr.  Young  and  Mr.  Hudson,  about  the 
K  W.  voyage. 

'  1583,  April  18th. — The  Quene  went  from  Richmond  toward 
Greenwich,  and  at  her  going  on  horsbak,  being  new  up,  she  called 
for  me  by  Mr.  Rawly  (Sir  Walter  Raleigh)  his  putting  her  in 
mynde,  and  she  sayd,  "  quod  defertur  non  aufertur,"  and  gave  me 
her  right  hand  to  kiss. 

4 1590,  May  18th. — The  two  gentlemen,  the  unckle  Mr. 
Richard  Candish  (Cavendish),  and  his  nephew,  the  most  famous 
Mr.  Thomas  Candish,  who  had  sayled  round  about  the  world,  did 
visit  me  at  Mortlake. 

1 1590,  December  4th. — The  Quene's  Majestic  called  for  me  at 
my  dore,  circa  3J  a  meridie  as  she  passed  by,  and  I  met  her  at 
Est  Shene  gate,  where  she  graciously,  putting  down  her  mask,  did 
say  with  mery  chere,  "  I  thank  thee,  Dee ;  there  wus  never 
promisse  made,  but  it  was  broken  or  kept."  I  understode  her 
Majesty  to  mean  of  the  hundred  angels  she  promised  to  have 
sent  me  this  day,  as  she  yesternight  told  Mr.  Richard  Candish. 

4 1595,  October  9th. — I  dyned  with  Sir  Walter  Rawlegh  at 
Durham  House.' 

(v.)  Some  of  the  entries  which  refer  to  Dee's  con- 
nection with  Lasco  and  Kelly  are  interesting : 

'1583,  March  18th.— Mr.  North  from  Poland,  after  he  had 
byn  with  the  Quene  he  came  to  me.  I  received  salutation  from 
Alaski,  Palatine  in  Poland. 

'  1583,  May  13th. — I  became  acquaynted  with  Albertus  Laski 

7—2 


100  WITCH,  WARLOCK,  AND  MAGICIAN.       [BOOK  I. 

at  7J  at  night,  in  the  Erie  of  Leicester  his  chamber,  in  the  court 
at  Greenwich. 

'1583,  May  18th. — The  Prince  Albertus  Laski  came  to  me  at 
Mortlake,  with  onely  two  men.  He  came  at  afternone,  and 
tarryed  supper,  and  after  sone  set. 

*  1583,  June  15th. — About  5  of  the  clok  cum  the  Polonian 
prince,  Lord  Albert  Lasky,  down  from  Bisham,  where  he  had 
lodged  the  night  before,  being  returned  from  Oxford,  whither  he 
had  gon  of  purpose  to  see  the  universityes,  wher  he  was  very 
honorably  used  and  enterteyned.  He  had  in  his  company  Lord 
Eussell,  Sir  Philip  Sydney,  and  other  gentlemen  :  he  was  rowed 
by  the  Quene's  men,  he  had  the  barge  covered  with  the  Quene's 
cloth,  the  Quene's  trumpeters,  etc.  He  came  of  purpose  to  do 
me  honour,  for  which  God  be  praysed  ! 

'  1583,  September  21st. — We  went  from  Mortlake,  and  so  the 
Lord  Albert  Lasky,  I,  Mr.  E.  Kelly,  our  wives,  my  children  and 
familie,  we  went  toward  our  two  ships  attending  for  us,  seven  or 
eight  myle  below  Gravesende. 

'  1586,  September  14th. — Trebonam  venimus. 

'1586,  October  18th. — E.  K.  recessit  a  Trebona  versus  Pragam 
curru  delatus  j  mansit  hie  per  tres  hebdomadas. 

'  1586,  December  19th. — Ad  gratificandam  Domino  Edouardo 
Garlando,  et  Francisco  suo  fratri,  qui  Edouardus  nuncius  mi  hi 
missus  erat  ab  Imperatore  Moschoriae  ut  ad  ilium  venirem,  E.  K. 
fecit  proleolem  (?)  lapidis  in  proportione  unius  .  .  .  gravi  arense 
super  quod  vulgaris  oz.  et  J  et  producta  est  optime  auri  oz.  fere : 
quod  aurum  post  distribuimus  a  crucibolo  una  dedimus  Edouardo. 

'  1587,  January  18th.— Eediit  E.  K.  a  Praga.  E.  K.  brought 
with  him  from  the  Lord  Rosenberg  to  my  wyfe  a  chayne  and 
juell  estemed  at  300  duckettes  ;  200  the  juell  stones,  and  100  the 
gold. 

'1587,  September  28th.— I  delivered  to  Mr.  Ed.  Kelley 
(earnestly  requiring  it  as  his  part)  the  half  of  all  the  animall 
which  was  made.  It  is  to  weigh  20  oz.  ;  he  wayed  it  himself  in 
my  chamber :  he  bowght  his  waights  purposely  for  it.  My  lord 
had  spoken  to  me  before  for  some,  but  Mr.  Kelly  had  not 
spoken. 

'  1587,  October  28th  and  29th.— John  Carp  did  begyn  to  make 
furnaces  over  the  gate,  and  he  used  of  my  rownd  bricks,  and  for 
the  yron  pot  was  contented  now  to  use  the  lesser  bricks,  60  to 
make  a  furnace. 


CHAP,  m.]  DR.  DEE'S 

'1587,  November  8th.  —  E,  K.  terribilis  expostulatio,  accusatio, 
etc.,  hora  tertia  a  meridie. 

1  1587,  December  12th.  —  Afternone  somewhat,  Mr.  Ed.  Kelly 
[did]  his  lamp  overthrow,  the  spirit  of  wyne  long  spent  to  nere, 
and  the  glas  being  not  stayed  with  buks  about  it,  as  it  was  wont 
to  be  ;  and  the  same  glass  so  flitting  on  one  side,  the  spirit  was 
spilled  out,  and  burnt  all  that  was  on  the  table  where  it  stode, 
lynnen  and  written  bokes,—  as  the  bok  of  Zacharias,  with  the 
"Alkanor"  that  I  translated  out  of  French,  for  some  by  [boy?] 
spirituall  cowld  not  ;  "  Kowlaschy,"  his  third  boke  of  waters 
philosophicall  ;  the  boke  called  *c  Angelicum  Opus  ;"  all  in 
pictures  of  the  work  from  the  beginning  to  the  end  ;  the  copy  of 
the  man  of  Bad  wise  "Conclusions  for  the  Transmution  of 
Metalls  ;"  and  40  leaves  in  4to.,  entitled  "  Extractiones  Dunstat," 
which  he  himself  extracted  and  noted  out  of  Dunstan  his  boke, 
and  the  very  boke  of  Dunstan  was  but  cast  on  the  bed  hard  by 
from  the  table.' 

This  so-called  '  Book  of  St.  Dunstan  '  was  one 
which  Kelly  professed  to  have  bought  from  a  Welsh 
innkeeper,  who,  it  was  alleged,  had  found  it  among 
the  ruins  of  Glastonbury. 

4  1588,  February  8th.  —  Mr.  E.  K.,  at  nine  of  the  clok,  afternone, 
sent  for  me  to  his  laboratory  over  the  gate  to  see  how  he  distilled 
sericon,  according  as  in  tyme  past  and  of  late  he  heard  of  me  out 
of  Bipley.  God  lend  his  heart  to  all  charity  and  virtue  ! 

*  1588,  August  24th.  —  Vidi  divinam  aquam  demonstratione 
magnifici  domini  et  amici  mei  incomparabilis  Dfomini]  Ed.  Kelii 
ante  meridiem  tertia  hora. 

'  1588,  December  7th.  —  ypsar  ppsvdwTr  -Trpopiffid  <pop  {tavt,  avd  ruuo 
(pop  6s  divy.'* 


*  This  Diary,  written  in  a  very  small  and  illegible  hand  on  the 
margins  of  old  almanacs,  was  discovered  by  Mr.  W.  H.  Black  in 
the  Ashmolean  Library  at  Oxford. 


WITCH, ;  WARLOCK,  AND  MAGICIAN.     [BOOK  i. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

MAGIC   AND    IMPOSTURE — A    COUPLE    OF    KNAVES. 

THE  secrecy,  the  mystery,  and  the  supernatural  pre- 
tensions associated  with  the  so-called  occult  sciences 
necessarily  recommended  them  to  the  knave  and 
the  cheat  as  instruments  of  imposition.  If  some  of 
the  earlier  professors  of  Hermeticism,  the  first  seekers 
after  the  philosophical  stone,  were  sincere  in  their 
convictions,  and  actuated  by  pure  and  lofty  motives, 
it  is  certain  that  their  successors  were  mostly  dis- 
honest adventurers,  bent  upon  turning  to  their 
personal  advantage  the  credulous  weakness  of  their 
fellow- creatures.  With  some  of  these  the  chief  object 
was  money  ;  others  may  have  craved  distinction  and 
influence  ;  others  may  have  sought  the  gratification 
of  passions  more  degrading  even  than  avarice  or 
ambition.  At  all  events,  alchemy  became  a  synonym 
for  fraud  :  a  magician  was  accepted  as,  by  right  of 
his  vocation,  an  impostor  ;  and  the  poet  and  the 
dramatist  pursued  him  with  the  whips  of  satire, 
invective,  and  ridicule,  while  the  law  prepared  for 
him  the  penalties  usually  inflicted  upon  criminals. 
These  penalties,  it  is  true,  he  very  frequently  con- 


CHAP.   IV.]  MAGIC    AND    IMPOSTURE.  103 

trived  to  elude ;  in  many  instances,  by  the  exercise  of 
craft  and  cunning  ;  in  others,  by  the  protection  of 
powerful  personages,  to  whom  he  had  rendered  ques- 
tionable services ;  and  again  in  others,  because  the 
agent  of  the  law  did  not  care  to  hunt  him  down  so 
long  as  he  forbore  to  bring  upon  himself  the  glare  of 
publicity.  Thus  it  came  to  pass  that  generation  after 
generation  saw  the  alchemist  still  practising  his  un- 
wholesome trade,  and  probably  he  retained  a  good  deal 
of  his  old  notoriety  down  to  as  late  a  date  as  the 
beginning  of  the  eighteenth  century.  It  must  be 
admitted,  however,  that  his  alchemical  pursuits 
gradually  sank  into  obscurity,  and  that  it  was  more 
in  the  character  of  an  astrologer,  and  as  a  manufac- 
turer of  love-potions  and  philtres,  of  charms  and 
waxen  images — not  to  say  as  a  pimp  and  a  bawd — 
that  he  looked  for  clients.  In  the  Spectator,  for  in- 
stance, that  admirable  mirror  of  English  social  life  in 
the  early  part  of  the  eighteenth  century,  you  will  find 
no  reference  to  alchemy  or  the  alchemist  ;  but  in  the 
Guardian  Addison's  light  humour  plays  readily  enough 
round  the  delusions  or  deceptions  of  the  astrologer. 
The  reader  will  remember  the  letter  which  Addison 
pretends  to  have  received  with  great  satisfaction  from 
an  astrologer  in  Moornelds.  And  in  contemporary 
literature  generally,  it  will  be  found  that  the  august 
inquirer  into  the  secrets  of  nature,  who  aimed  at  the 
transmutation  of  metals  and  the  possession  of  im- 
mortal youth,  had  by  this  time  been  succeeded  by  an 
obscure  and  vulgar  cheat,  who  beguiled  the  ignorant 
and  weak  by  his  jargon  about  planetary  bodies,  and 


104  WITCH,  WARLOCK,  AND  MAGICIAN.        [BOOK  I. 

his  cheap  stock-in-trade  of  a  wig  and  a  gown,  a 
wand,  a  horoscope  or  two,  and  a  few  coloured  vials. 
This  '  modern  magician '  is,  indeed,  a  common  char- 
acter in  eighteenth -century  fiction. 

But  a  century  earlier  the  magician  retained  some 
little  of  the  '  pomp  and  circumstance '  of  the  old 
magic,  and  was  still  the  confidant  of  princes  and 
nobles,  and  not  seldom  the  depository  of  State  secrets 
involving  the  reputation  and  the  honour  of  men  and 
women  of  the  highest  position.  So  much  as  this 
may  be  truly  asserted  of  Simon  Foraian,  who 
flourished  in  the  dark  and  criminal  period  of  the 
reign  of  James  I.,  when  the  foul  practices  of  mediaeval 
Italy  were  transferred  for  the  first  and  last  time  to  an 
English  Court.  Forman  was  born  at  Quidham,  a 
village  near  Wilton,  in  Wilts,  in  1552.  Little  is 
known  of  his  early  years  ;  but  he  seems  to  have 
received  a  good  education  at  the  Sarum  Grammar 
School,  and  afterwards  to  have  been  apprenticed  to  a 
druggist  in  that  ancient  city.  Endowed  with  con- 
siderable natural  gifts  and  an  ambitious  temper,  he 
made  his  way  to  Oxford,  and  was  entered  at  Magda- 
lene College,  but  owing  to  lack  of  means  was  unable 
to  remain  as  a  student  for  more  than  two  years.  To 
improve  his  knowledge  of  astrology,  astronomy,  and 
medicine,  he  visited  Portugal,  the  Low  Countries, 
and  the  East. 

On  his  return  he  began  to  practise  as  a  physician 
in  Philpot  Lane.  London ;  but,  as  he  held  no 
diploma,  was  four  times  imprisoned  and  fined  as  a 
quack.  Eventually  he  found  himself  compelled  to 


CHAP.  IV.]  MAGIC   AND   IMPOSTUKE.  105 

take  the  degree  of  M.D.  at  Cambridge  (June  27, 
1603)  ;  after  which  he  settled  in  Lambeth,  and  carried 
on  the  twofold  profession  of  physician  and  astrologer. 
In  his  comedy  of  '  The  Silent  Woman/  Ben  Jonson 
makes  one  of  his  characters  say  :  '  I  would  say  thou 
hadst  the  best  philtre  in  the  world,  and  could  do 
more  than  Madam  Medea  or  Doctor  Forman/  whence 
we  may  infer  that  the  medicines  he  compounded  were 
not  of  the  orthodox  kind  or  approved  by  the  faculty. 
Lovers  resorted  to  him  for  potions  which  should 
soften  obdurate  hearts  ;  beauties  for  powders  and 
washes  which  might  preserve  their  waning  charms  ; 
married  women  for  drugs  to  relieve  them  of  the 
reproach  of  sterility  ;  rakes  who  desired  to  corrupt 
virtue,  and  impatient  heirs  who  longed  for  immediate 
possession  of  their  fortunes,  for  compounds  which 
should  enfeeble,  or  even  kill.  Such  was  the  character 
of  Doctor  Forman's  sinister  '  practice.'  Among  those 
who  sought  his  unscrupulous  assistance  was  the  in- 
famous Countess  of  Essex,  though  Forman  died 
before  her  nefarious  schemes  reached  the  stage  of 
fruition. 

His  death,  which  took  place  on  the  12th  of  Sep- 
tember, 1611,  was  attended  (it  is  said)  by  remark- 
able circumstances.  The  Sunday  night  previous,  '  his 
wife  and  he  being  at  supper  in  their  garden-house, 
she  being  pleasant,  told  him  she  had  been  informed 
he  could  resolve  whether  man  or  wife  should  die 
first.  "Whether  shall  I,"  quoth  she,  "bury  you  or 
no  r  "  Oh,  Truais,"  for  so  he  called  her,  "  thou  shalt 
bury  me,  but  thou  wilt  much  repent  it."  "  Yea,  but 


106  WITCH,   WAKLOCK,  AND  MAGICIAN.        [BOOK  I. 

how  long  first  ?"  "  I  shall  die,"  said  he,  "  on  Thurs- 
day night."  Monday  came  ;  all  was  well.  Tuesday 
came,  he  not  sick.  Wednesday  came,  and  still  he 
was  well,  with  which  his  impertinent  wife  did  much 
twit  him  in  his  teeth.  Thursday  came,  and  dinner 
was  ended,  he  very  well  ;  he  went  down  to  the  water- 
side, and  took  a  pair  of  oars  to  go  to  some  buildings 
he  was  in  hand  with  in  Puddle  Dock.  Being  in  the 
middle  of  the  Thames,  he  presently  fell  down,  only 
saying,  "  An  impost,  an  impost,"  and  so  died.  A 
most  sad  storm  of  wind  immediately  following.' 

It  seems  as  if  these  men  could  never  die  without 
bringing  down  upon  the  earth  a  grievous  storm  or 
tempest  !  The  preceding  story,  however,  partakes 
too  much  of  the  marvellous  to  be  very  easily  accepted. 

According  to  Anthony  Wood,  this  renowned 
magician  was  'a  person  that  in  horary  questions, 
especially  theft,  was  very  judicious  and  fortunate ' 
(in  other  words,  he  was  well  served  by  his  spies  and 
instruments)  ;  '  so,  also,  in  sickness,  which  was 
indeed  his  masterpiece  ;  and  had  good  success  in 
resolving  questions  about  marriage,  and  in  other 
questions  very  intricate.  He  professed  to  his  wife 
that  there  would  be  much  trouble  about  Sir  Robert 
Carr,  Earl  of  Somerset,  and  the  Lady  Frances,  his 
wife,  who  frequently  resorted  to  him,  and  from  whose 
company  he  would  sometimes  lock  himself  in  his 
study  one  whole  day.  He  had  compounded  things 
upon  the  desire  of  Mrs.  Anne  Turner,  to  make  the 
said  Sir  Robert  Carr  calid  quo  ad  hanc,  and  Robert, 
Earl  of  Essex  frigid  quo  ad  hanc ;  that  his,  to  his  wife 


CHAP.   IV.]  A    CAUSE    CELEBRE.  107 

the  Lady  Frances,  who  had  a  mind  to  get  rid  of  him 
and  be  wedded  to  the  said  Sir  Robert.  He  had  also 
certain  pictures  in  wax,  representing  Sir  Robert  and 
the  said  Lady,  to  cause  a  love  between  each  other, 
with  other  such  like  things.' 

A    CAUSE    CELEBRE. 

Lady  Frances  Howard,  second  daughter  of  the 
Earl  of  Suffolk,  was  married,  at  the  age  of  thirteen, 
to  Robert,  Earl  of  Essex,  who  was  only  a  year  older. 
The  alliance  was  dictated  by  political  considerations, 
and  had  been  recommended  by  the  King,  who  did 
not  fail  to  attend  the  gorgeous  festivities  that  cele- 
brated the  occasion  (January  5th,  1606).  As  it  was 
desirable  that  the  boy-bridegroom  should  be  separated 
for  awhile  from  his  child-wife,  the  young  Earl  was  sent 
to  travel  on  the  Continent,  and  he  did  not  return  to 
claim  his  rights  as  a  husband  until  shortly  after 
Christmas,  1609,  when  he  had  just  passed  his 
eighteenth  birthday.  In  the  interval  his  wife  had 
developed  into  one  of  the  most  beautiful,  and,  unfor- 
tunately, one  of  the  most  dissolute,  women  in 
England.  Naturally  impetuous,  self-willed,  and  un- 
scrupulous, she  had  received  neither  firm  guidance  nor 
wise  advice  at  the  hands  of  a  coarse  and  avaricious 
mother.  Nor  was  James's  Court  a  place  for  the  cul- 
tivation of  the  virtues  of  modesty  and  self-restraint. 
The  young  Countess,  therefore,  placed  no  control  upon 
her  passions,  and  had  already  become  notorious  for  her 
disregard  of  those  obligations  which  her  sex  usually 
esteem  as  sacred.  At  one  time  she  intrigued  with 


108  WITCH,  WARLOCK,  AND  MAGICIAN.        [BOOK  I. 

Prince  Henry,  but  he  dismissed  her  in  angry  disgust 
at  her  numerous  infidelities.  Finally,  she  crossed 
the  path  of  the  King's  handsome  favourite,  Sir  Robert 
Carr,  and  a  guilty  passion  sprang  up  between  them. 
It  is  painful  to  record  that  it  was  encouraged  by  her 
great-uncle,  Lord  Northampton,  who  hoped  through 
Carr's  influence  to  better  his  position  at  Court  ;  and 
it  was  probably  at  his  mansion  in  the  Strand  that  the 
plot  was  framed  of  which  I  am  about  to  tell  the  issue. 
But  the  meetings  between  the  two  lovers  sometimes 
took  place  at  the  house  of  one  of  Carr's  agents,  a 
man  named  Coppinger. 

At  first,  when  Essex  returned,  the  Countess  re- 
fused to  live  with  him  ;  but  her  parents  ultimately 
compelled  her  to  treat  him  as  her  husband,  and  even 
to  accompany  him  to  his  country  seat  at  Chartley. 
There  she  remained  for  three  years,  wretched  with  an 
inconceivable  wretchedness,  and  animated  with  wild 
dreams  of  escape  from  the  husband  she  hated  to  the 
paramour  she  loved. 

For  this  purpose  she  sought  the  assistance  of  Mrs. 
Anne  Turner,  the  widow  of  a  respectable  physician, 
and  a  woman  of  considerable  personal  charms,  who 
had  become  the  mistress  of  Sir  Arthur  Mainwaring.* 
Mrs.  Turner  introduced  her  to  Dr.  Simon  Forman, 
and  an  agreement  was  made  that  Forman  should 

*  This  woman  has  a  place  in  the  records  of  fashion  as  intro- 
ducer of  the  novelty  of  yellow-starching  the  extensive  ruffs 
which  were  then  generally  worn.  When  Lord  Chief  Justice 
Coke  sentenced  her  to  death  (as  we  shall  hereafter  see)  for  her 
share  in  the  murder  of  Overbury,  he  ordered  that '  as  she  was  the 
person  who  had  brought  yellow-starched  ruffs  into  vogue,  she 


CHAP.   IV.]  A    CAUSE    CELEBRE.  109 

exercise  his  magical  powers  to  fix  young  Carr's  affec- 
tions irrevocably  upon  the  Countess.  The  intercourse 
between  the  astrologer  and  the  ladies  became  very 
frequent,  and  the  former  exercised  all  his  skill  to 
carry  out  their  desires.  At  a  later  period,  Mrs. 
Forman  deposed  in  court  '  that  Mrs.  Turner  and  her 
husband  would  sometimes  be  locked  up  in  his  study 
for  three  or  four  hours  together/  and  the  Countess 
learned  to  speak  of  him  as  her  '  sweet  father/ 

The  Countess  next  conceived  the  most  flagitious 
designs  against  her  husband's  health ;  and,  to  carry 
them  out,  again  sought  the  assistance  of  her  un- 
scrupulous quack,  who  accordingly  set  to  work, 
made  waxen  images,  invented  new  charms,  supplied 
drugs  to  be  administered  in  the  Earl's  drinks,  and 
washes  in  which  his  linen  was  to  be  steeped.  These 
measures,  however,  did  not  prove  effectual,  and 
letters  addressed  by  the  Countess  at  this  time  to 
Mrs.  Turner  and  Dr.  Forman  complain  that  f  my  lord 
is  very  well  as  ever  he  was,'  while  reiterating  the  sad 
story  of  her  hatred  towards  him,  and  her  design  to 
be  rid  of  him  at  all  hazards.  In  the  midst  of  the 
intrigue  came  the  sudden  death  of  Dr.  Forman,  who 
seems  to  have  felt  no  little  anxiety  as  to  his  share  in 
it,  and,  on  one  occasion,  as  we  have  seen,  professed 
to  his  wife  '  that  there  would  be  much  trouble  about 
Carr  and  the  Countess  of  Essex,  who  frequently 
resorted  unto  him,  and  from  whose  company  he  would 

should  be  hanged  in  that  dress,  that  the  same  might  end  in  shame 
and  detestation.'  As  the  hangman  was  also  adorned  with  yellow 
ruffs,  it  is  no  wonder  that  Coke's  prediction  was  amply  fulfilled. 


110  WITCH,  WARLOCK,  AND  MAGICIAN.       [BOOK    I. 

sometimes  lock  himself  in  his  study  a  whole  day.' 
Mrs.  Forman,  when,  at  a  later  date,  examined  in 
court,  deposed  'that  Mrs.  Turner  came  to  her  house 
immediately  after  her  husband's  death,  and  did  de- 
mand certain  pictures  which  were  in  her  husband's 
study,  namely,  one  picture  in  wax,  very  mysteriously 
apparelled  in  silk  and  satin  ;  as  also  another  made  in 
the  form  of  a  naked  woman,  spreading  and  laying 
forth  her  hair  in  a  glass,  which  Mrs.  Turner  did  con- 
fidently aifirm  to  be  in  a  box,  and  she  knew  in  what 
part  of  the  room  in  the  study  they  were.'  We  also 
learn  that  Forman,  in  reply  to  the  Countess's  re- 
proaches, averred  that  the  devil,  as  he  was  informed, 
had  no  power  over  the  person  of  the  Earl  of  Essex. 
The  Countess,  however,  was  not  to  be  diverted  from 
her  object,  and,  after  Forman's  death,  employed  two 
or  three  other  conjurers — one  Gresham,  and  a  Doctor 
Lavoire,  or  Savory,  being  specially  mentioned. 

What  followed  has  left  a  dark  and  shameful  stain 
on  the  record  of  the  reign  of  James  I.  The  King 
personally  interfered  on  behalf  of  his  favourite,  and 
resolved  that  Essex  should  be  compelled  to  surrender 
his  wife.  For  this  purpose  the  Countess  was  in- 
structed to  bring  against  him  a  charge  of  conjugal 
incapacity  ;  and  a  Commission  of  right  reverend  pre- 
lates and  learned  lawyers,  under  the  presidency — one 
blushes  to  write  it — of  Abbot,  Archbishop  of  Canter- 
bury, was  appointed  to  investigate  the  loathsome 
details.  A  jury  of  matrons  was  empanelled  to  deter- 
mine the  virginity  of  Lady  Essex,  and,  as  a  pure 
young  girl  was  substituted  in  her  place,  their  verdict 


CHAP.   IV.]  A    CAUSE    CELEBRE.  Ill 

was,  of  course,  in  the  affirmative !  As  for  the  Com- 
mission, it  decided,  after  long  debates,  by  a  majority 
of  seven  to  five,  that  the  Lady  Frances  was  entitled 
to  a  divorce — the  majority  being  obtained,  however, 
only  by  the  King's  active  exercise  of  his  personal  influ- 
ence (September,  1613).  The  lady  having  thus  been 
set  free  from  her  vows  by  a  most  shameless  intrigue, 
James  hurried  on  a  marriage  between  her  and  his 
favourite,  and  on  St.  Stephen's  Day  it  was  cele- 
brated with  great  splendour.  In  the  interval  Carr 
had  been  raised  to  the  rank  and  title  of  Earl  of 
Somerset,  and  his  wife  had  previously  been  made 
Viscountess  Rochester. 

A  strenuous  opponent  of  these  unhallowed  nuptials 
had  been  found  in  the  person  of  Sir  Thomas  Over- 
bury,  a  young  man  of  brilliant  parts,  who  stood 
towards  Somerset  in  much  the  same  relation  that 
Somerset  stood  towards  the  King.  At  the  outset  he 
had  looked  with  no  disfavour  on  his  patron's  intrigue 
with  Lady  Frances,  but  had  actually  composed  the 
love-letters  which  went  to  her  in  the  Earl's  name  ; 
but,  for  reasons  not  clearly  understood,  he  assumed  a 
hostile  attitude  when  the  marriage  was  proposed.  As 
he  had  acquired  a  knowledge  of  secrets  which  would 
have  made  him  a  dangerous  witness  before  the  Divorce 
Commission,  the  intriguers  felt  the  necessity  of  getting 
him  out  of  the  way.  Accordingly,  the  King  pressed 
upon  him  a  diplomatic  appointment  on  the  Continent, 
and  when  this  was  refused  committed  him  to  the 
Tower.  There  he  lingered  for  some  months  in  failing 
health  until  a  dose  of  poison  terminated  his  sufferings 


112  WITCH,  WARLOCK,  AND  MAGICIAN.        [BOOK  I. 

on  September  13,  1613,  rather  more  than  three  months 
before  the  completion  of  the  marriage  he  had  scriven 
ineffectually  to  prevent.  This  poison  was  unquestion- 
ably administered  at  the  instigation  of  Lady  Essex, 
though  under  what  circumstances  it  is  not  easy  to 
determine.  The  most  probable  supposition  seems  to 
be  that  an  assistant  of  L obeli,  a  French  apothecary 
who  attended  Overbury,  was  bribed  to  administer  the 
fatal  drug. 

For  two  years  the  murder  thus  foully  committed 
remained  unknown,  but  in  the  summer  of  1615,  when 
James's  affection  for  Somerset  was  rapidly  declining, 
and  a  new  and  more  splendid  favourite  had  risen  in 
the  person  of  George  Yilliers,  some  information  of  the 
crime  was  conveyed  to  the  King  by  his  secretary, 
Winwood.  How  Winwood  obtained  this  information 
is  still  a  mystery ;  but  we  may,  perhaps,  conjecture 
that  he  received  it  from  the  apothecary's  boy,  who, 
being  taken  ill  at  Flushing,  may  have  sought  to 
relieve  his  conscience  by  confession.  A  few  weeks 
afterwards,  Helwys,  the  Lieutenant  of  the  Tower, 
under  an  impression  that  the  whole  matter  had  been 
discovered,  acknowledged  that  frequent  attempts  had 
been  made  to  poison  Overbury  in  his  food,  but  that 
he  had  succeeded  in  defeating  them  until  the  apothe- 
cary's boy  eluded  his  vigilance.  Who  sent  the  poison 
he  did  not  know.  The  only  person  whose  name  he 
had  heard  in  connection  with  it  was  Mrs.  Turner,  and 
the  agent  employed  to  convey  it  was,  he  said,  a 
certain  Richard  Weston,  a  former  servant  of  Mrs. 
Turner,  who  had  been  admitted  into  the  Tower  as  a 


CHAP.    IV. J  A    CAUSE    CELEBRE.  113 

keeper,  and  entrusted  with  the  immediate  charge  of 
Overbnry. 

On  being  examined,  Western  at  first  denied  all 
knowledge  of  the  affair ;  but  eventually  he  confessed 
that,  having  been  rebuked  by  Helwys,  he  had  thrown 
away  the  medicaments  with  which  he  had  been  en- 
trusted ;  and  next  he  accused  Lady  Somerset  of 
instigating  him  to  administer  to  Overbury  a  poison, 
which  would  be  forwarded  to  him  for  that  purpose. 
Then  one  Rawlins,  a  servant  of  the  Earl,  gave  infor- 
mation that  he  had  been  similarly  employed.  As 
soon  as  Somerset  heard  that  he  was  implicated,  he 
wrote  to  the  King  protesting  his  innocence,  and  de- 
claring that  a  conspiracy  had  been  hatched  against 
him.  But  many  suspicious  particulars  being  dis- 
covered, he  was  committed  to  the  custody  of  Sir 
Oliver  St.  John  ;  while  Weston,  on  October  23,  was 
put  on  his  trial  for  the  murder  of  Overbury,  and 
found  guilty,  though  no  evidence  was  adduced  against 
him  which  would  have  satisfied  a  modern  jury. 

On  November  7  Mrs.  Turner  was  brought  before 
the  Court.  Her  trial  excited  the  most  profound 
curiosity,  and  Westminster  Hall  was  crowded  by  an 
eager  multitude,  who  shuddered  with  superstitious 
emotion  when  the  instruments  employed  by  Forman 
in  his  magical  rites  were  exposed  to  view.*  It  would 

*  Arthur  Wilson,  in  his  '  Memoirs/  furnishes  a  strange  account 
of  the  practices  in  which  Lady  Essex,  Mrs.  Turner,  and  the  con- 
jurer took  part.  '  The  Countess  of  Essex,'  he  says,  '  to  strengthen 
her  designs,  finds  out  one  of  her  own  stamp,  Mrs.  Turner,  a  doctor 
of  physic's  widow,  a  woman  whom  prodigality  and  looseness  had 
brought  low  ;  yet  her  pride  would  make  her  fly  any  pitch,  rather 

8 


114  WITCH,  WARLOCK,  AND  MAGICIAN.        [BOOK  I. 

seem  that  Mrs.  Turner,  when  arrested,  immediately 
sent  her  maid  to  Forman's  widow,  to  urge  her  to 

than  fall  into  the  jaws  of  Want.  These  two  counsel  together  how 
they  might  stop  the  current  of  the  Earl's  affection  towards  his 
wife,  and  make  a  clear  passage  for  the  Viscount  in  his  place.  To 
effect  which,  one  Dr.  Forman,  a  reputed  conjurer  (living  at 
Lambeth)  is  found  out;  the  women  declare  to  him  their  grievances; 
he  promises  sudden  help,  and,  to  amuse  them,  frames  many  little 
pictures  of  brass  and  wax — some  like  the  Viscount  and  Countess, 
whom  he  must  unite  and  strengthen,  others  like  the  Earl  of  Essex, 
whom  he  must  debilitate  and  weaken ;  and  then  with  philtrous 
powders,  and  such  drugs,  he  works  upon  their  persons.  And  to 
practise  what  effects  his  arts  would  produce,  Mrs.  Turner,  that 
loved  Sir  Arthur  Manwaring  (a  gentleman  then  attending  the 
Prince),  and  willing  to  keep  him  to  her,  gave  him  some  of  the 
powder,  which  wrought  so  violently  with  him,  that  through  a 
storm  of  rain  and  thunder  he  rode  fifteen  miles  one  dark  night 
to  her  house,  scarce  knowing  where  he  was  till  he  was  there. 
Such  is  the  devilish  and  mad  rage  of  lust,  heightened  with  art 
and  fancy. 

'  These  things,  matured  and  ripened  by  this  juggler  Forman, 
gave  them  assurance  of  happy  hopes.  Her  courtly  incitements, 
that  drew  the  Viscount  to  observe  her,  she  imputed  to  the 
operation  of  those  drugs  he  had  tasted  ;  and  that  harshness  and 
stubborn  comportment  she  expressed  to  her  husband,  making 
him  (weary  of  such  entertainments)  to  absent  himself,  she  thought 
proceeded  from  the  effects  of  those  unknown  potions  and  powders 
that  were  administered  to  him.  So  apt  is  the  imagination  to  take 
impressions  of  those  things  we  are  willing  to  believe. 

'  The  good  Earl,  finding  his  wife  nurseled  in  the  Court,  and  seeing 
no  possibility  to  reduce  her  to  reason  till  she  were  estranged  from  the 
relish  and  taste  of  the  delights  she  sucked  in  there,  made  his  con- 
dition again  known  to  her  father.  The  old  man,  being  troubled  with 
his  daughter's  disobedience,  embittered  her,  being  near  him,  with 
wearisome  and  continued  chidings,  to  wean  her  from  the  sweets 
she  doted  upon,  and  with  much  ado  forced  her  into  the  country. 
But  how  harsh  was  the  parting,  being  sent  away  from  the  place 
where  she  grew  and  flourished  !  Yet  she  left  all  her  engines  and 
imps  behind  her  :  the  old  doctor  and  his  confederate,  Mrs.  Turner, 
must  be  her  two  supporters.  She  blazons  all  her  miseries  to  them 


CHAP.   IV.]  A    CAUSE    C^LEBRE.  115 

burn — before  the  Privy  Council  sent  to  search  her 
house — any  of  her  husband's  papers  that  might  con- 
tain dangerous  secrets.  She  acted  on  the  advice,  but 
overlooked  a  few  documents  of  great  importance,  in- 
cluding a  couple  of  letters  written  by  Lady  Essex  to 
Mrs.  Turner  and  Forman.  The  various  articles 
seized  in  Forman's  house  referred,  however,  not  to 
the  murder  of  Overbury,  but  to  the  conjurations  em- 
ployed against  the  Earls  of  Somerset  and  Essex. 
1  There  was  shewed  in  Court,'  says  a  contemporary 
report,  '  certaine  pictures  of  a  man  and  a  woman  made 
in  lead,  and  also  a  moulde  of  brasse  wherein  they 
were  cast,  a  blacke  scarfe  alsoe  full  of  white  crosses, 
which  Mrs.  Turner  had  in  her  custody/  besides  '  in- 
chanted  paps  and  other  pictures.'  There  was  also  a 
parcel  of  Forman's  written  charms  and  incantations. 
'  In  some  of  those  parchments  the  devill  had  par- 
ticular names,  who  were  conjured  to  torment  the  lord 
Somersett  and  Sir  Arthur  Mannering,  if  theire  loves 

at  her  depart,  and  moistens  the  way  with  her  tears.  Chartley 
was  an  hundred  miles  from  her  happiness ;  and  a  little  time  thus 
lost  is  her  eternity.  When  she  came  thither,  though  in  the 
pleasantest  part  of  the  summer,  she  shut  herself  up  in  her 
chamber,  not  suffering  a  beam  of  light  to  peep  upon  her  dark 
thoughts.  If  she  stirred  out  of  her  chamber,  it  was  in  the  dead 
of  the  night,  when  sleep  had  taken  possession  of  all  others  but 
those  about  her.  In  this  implacable,  sad,  and  discontented 
humour,  she  continued  some  months,  always  murmuring  against, 
but  never  giving  the  least  civil  respect  to,  her  husband,  which  the 
good  man  suffered  patiently,  being  loth  to  be  the  divulger  of  his 
own  misery ;  yet,  having  a  manly  courage,  he  would  sometimes 
break  into  a  little  passion  to  see  himself  slighted  and  neglected ; 
but  having  never  found  better  from  her,  it  was  the  easier  to  bear 
with  her.' 

8—2 


116  WITCH,  WARLOCK,  AND  MAGICIAN.       [BOOK  I. 

should  not  contynue,  the  one  to  the  Countesse,  the 
other  to  Mrs.  Turner.7  Visions  of  a  dingy  room 
haunted  by  demons,  who  had  been  summoned  from 
the  infernal  depths  by  Forman's  potent  spells,  stimu- 
lated the  imagination  of  the  excited  crowd  until  they 
came  to  believe  that  the  fiends  were  actually  there  in 
the  Court,  listening  in  wrath  to  the  exposure  of  their 
agents ;  and,  behold !  in  the  very  heat  and  flush  of 
this  extravagant  credulity,  a  sudden  crack  was  heard 
in  one  of  the  platforms  or  scaffolds,  causing  i  a  great 
fear,  tumult,  and  commotion  amongst  the  spectators 
and  through  the  hall,  every  one  fearing  hurt,  as  if  the 
devil  had  been  present  and  grown  angry  to  have  his 
workmanship  known  by  such  as  were  not  his  own 
scholars.'  The  narrator  adds  that  there  was  also  a 
note  showed  in  Court,  made  by  Dr.  Forman,  and 
written  on  parchment,  signifying  what  ladies  loved 
what  lords  ;  but  the  Lord  Chief  Justice  would  not 
suffer  it  to  be  read  openly.  This  '  note,'  or  book,  was  a 
diary  of  the  doctor's  dealings  with  the  persons  named  ; 
and  a  scandalous  tradition  affirms  that  the  Lord  Chief 
Justice  would  not  have  it  read  because  his  wife's  name 
was  the  first  which  caught  his  eye  when  he  glanced 
at  the  contents. 

Mrs.  Turner's  conviction  followed  as  a  matter  of 
course  upon  Weston's.  There  was  no  difficulty  in 
proving  that  she  had  been  concerned  in  his  pro- 
ceedings, and  that  if  he  had  committed  a  crime  she 
was  particeps  criminis.  Both  she  and  Weston  died 
with  an  acknowledgment  on  their  lips  that  they 
were  justly  punished.  Her  end,  according  to  all 


CHAP.   IV.]  A    CAUSE    CELEBRE.  117 

accounts,  was  sufficiently  edifying.  Bishop  Good- 
man quotes  the  narrative  of  an  eye-witness,  one 
Mr.  John  Castle,  in  which  we  read  that,  '  if  detesta- 
tion of  painted  pride,  lust,  malice,  powdered  hair, 
yellow  bands,  and  the  rest  of  the  wardrobe  of  Court 
vanities  ;  if  deep  sighs,  tears,  confessions,  ejacula- 
tions of  the  soul,  admonitions  of  all  sorts  of 
people  to  make  God  and  an  unspotted  conscience 
always  our  friends  ;  if  the  protestation  of  faith  and 
hope  to  be  washed  by  the  same  Saviour  and  the  like 
mercies  that  Magdalene  was,  be  signs  and  demon- 
strations of  a  blessed  penitent,  then  I  will  tell  you 
that  this  poor  broken  woman  went  a  cruce  ad 
gloriam,  and  now  enjoys  the  presence  of  her  and  our 
Redeemer.  Her  body  being  taken  down  by  her 
brother,  one  Norton,  servant  to  the  Prince,  was  in  a 
coach  conveyed  to  St.  Martin's-in-the-Fields,  where, 
in  the  evening  of  the  same  day,  she  had  an  honest 
and  a  decent  burial.'  Her  sad  fate  seems  to  have 
appealed  strongly  to  public  sympathy,  and  to  have 
drawn  a  veil  of  oblivion  over  the  sins  and  follies 
of  her  misspent  life.  A  contemporary  versifier 
speaks  of  her  in  language  worthy  of  a  Lucretia  : 

'  0  how  the  cruel  cord  did  misbecome 
Her  comely  neck  !  and  yet  by  Law's  just  doom 
Had  been  her  death.     Those  locks,  like  golden  thread, 
That  used  in  youth  to  enshrine  her  globe-like  head, 
Hung  careless  down  ;  and  that  delightful  limb, 
Her  snow-white  nimble  hand,  that  used  to  trim 
Those  tresses  up,  now  spitefully  did  tear 
And  rend  the  same ;  nor  did  she  now  forbear 
To  beat  that  breast  of  more  than  lily-white, 
Which  sometime  was  the  bed  of  sweet  delight. 


118  WITCH,  WARLOCK,  AND  MAGICIAN.        [BOOK  I. 

From  those  two  springs  where  joy  did  whilom  dwell, 
Grief's  pearly  drops  upon  her  pale  cheek  fell.' 

The  next  to  suffer  was  an  apothecary  named 
Franklin,  from  whom  the  poison  had  been  procured. 
'  Before  he  was  executed,  he  threw  out  wild  hints  of 
the  existence  of  a  plot  far  exceeding  in  villainy  that 
which  was  in  course  of  investigation.  He  tried  to 
induce  all  who  would  listen  to  him  to  believe  that 
he  knew  of  a  conspiracy  in  which  many  great  lords 
were  concerned  ;  and  that  not  only  the  late  Prince 
[Henry]  had  been  removed  by  unfair  means,  but  that 
a  plan  had  been  made  to  get  rid  of  the  Electress 
Palatine  and  her  husband.  As,  however,  all  this 
was  evidently  only  dictated  by  a  hope  of  escaping  the 
gallows,  he  was  allowed  to  share  with  the  others  a 
fate  which  he  richly  deserved.' 

After  the  execution  of  these  smaller  culprits,  some 
months  elapsed  before  Bacon,  as  Attorney-General, 
was  directed  to  proceed  against  the  greater.  It  was 
not  until  May  24,  1616,  that  the  Countess  of 
Somerset  was  put  upon  her  trial  before  the  High 
Steward's  Court  in  Westminster  Hall.  Contem- 
porary testimony  differs  strangely  as  to  her  behaviour. 
One  authority  says  that,  whilst  the  indictment  was 
being  read,  she  turned  pale  and  trembled,  and  when 
Weston's  name  was  mentioned  hid  her  face  behind 
her  fan.  Another  remarks  :  '  She  won  pity  by  her 
sober  demeanour,  which,  in  my  opinion,'  he  adds, 
'  was  more  curious  and  confident  than  was  fit  for  a 
lady  in  such  distress,  yet  she  shed,  or  made  show  of 


CHAP.  IV.]  A    CAUSE    CELEBRE.  119 

some  tears,  divers  times.'  The  evidence  against  her 
was  too  strong  to  be  confuted,  and  she  pleaded  guilty. 
When  the  judge  asked  her  if  she  had  anything  to 
say  in  arrest  of  judgment,  she  replied,  in  low, 
almost  inaudible  tones,  that  she  could  not  extenuate 
her  fault.  She  implored  mercy,  and  begged  that 
the  lords  would  intercede  with  the  King  on  her 
behalf.  Sentence  was  then  pronounced,  and  the 
prisoner  sent  back  to  the  Tower,  to  await  the  King's 
decision. 

On  the  following  day  the  Earl  was  tried.  Bacon 
again  acted  as  prosecutor,  and  in  his  opening  speech 
he  said  that  the  evidence  to  be  brought  forward  by 
the  Government  would  prove  four  points  :  1.  That 
Somerset  bore  malice  against  Overbury  before  the 
latter's  imprisonment  ;  2.  That  he  devised  the  plan 
by  which  that  imprisonment  was  effected  ;  3.  That 
he  actually  sent  poisons  to  the  Tower  ;  4.  That 
he  had  made  strenuous  efforts  to  conceal  the  proofs 
of  his  guilt.  He  added  that  he  himself  would 
undertake  the  management  of  the  case  on  the  first 
two  points,  leaving  his  subordinates,  Montague  and 
Crew,  to  deal  with  the  third  and  fourth. 

Bacon  had  chosen  for  himself  a  comparatively  easy 
task.  The  ill-feeling  that  had  existed  between 
Overbury  and  his  patron  was  beyond  doubt  ;  while 
it  was  conclusively  shown,  and,  indeed,  hardly  dis- 
puted, that  Somerset  had  had  a  hand  in  Overbury 's 
imprisonment,  and  in  the  appointment  of  Helwys 
and  Weston  as  his  custodians.  Passages  from  Lord 
Northampton's  letters  to  the  Earl  proved  the  exist- 


]  20  WITCH,  WARLOCK,  AND  MAGICIAN.        [BOOK  I. 

ence  of  a  plot  in  which  both  were  mixed  up,  and 
that  Helwys  had  expressed  an  opinion  that  Over- 
bury 's  death  would  be  a  satisfactory  termination  of 
the  imbroglio.  But  he  might  probably  have  based 
this  opinion  on  the  fact  that  Overbury  was  seriously 
ill,  and  his  recovery  more  than  doubtful. 

When  Bacon  had  concluded  his  part  of  the  case, 
Ellesmere,  who  presided,  urged  Somerset  to  confess 
his  guilt.  '  No,  my  lord/  said  the  Earl  calmly, 
i  I  came  hither  with  a  resolution  to  defend  myself.' 

Montague  then  endeavoured  to  demonstrate  that 
the  poison  of  which  Overbury  died  had  been  adminis- 
tered with  Somerset's  knowledge.  But  he  could 
get  no  further  than  this  :  that  Somerset  had  been 
in  the  habit  of  sending  powders,  as  well  as  tarts  and 
jellies,  to  Overbury  ;  but  he  did  not,  and  could  not 
prove  that  the  powders  were  poisonous.  Nor  was 
Serjeant  Crew  able  to  advance  the  case  beyond  the 
point  reached  by  Bacon  ;  he  could  argue  only  on  the 
assumption  of  Somerset's  guilt,  which  his  colleagues 
had  failed  to  establish. 

In  our  own  day  it  would  be  held  that  the  case  for 
the  prosecution  had  completely  broken  down  ;  and  I 
must  add  my  conviction  that  Somerset  was  in  no 
way  privy  to  Overbury's  murder.  He  had  assented 
to  his  imprisonment,  because  he  was  weary  of  his 
importunity  ;  but  he  still  retained  a  kindly  feeling 
towards  him,  and  was  evidently  grieved  at  the 
serious  nature  of  his  illness.  As  a  matter  of  fact, 
it  was  not  proved  even  that  Overbury  died  of 
poison,  though  I  admit  that  this  is  put  beyond 


CHAP.  IV,]  A    CAUSE    CELEBRE.  121 

doubt  by  collateral  circumstances.  Somerset's  posi- 
tion, however,  before  judges  who  were  more  or  less 
hostilely  disposed,  with  the  agents  of  the  Crown  bent 
on  obtaining  his  conviction,  and  he  himself  without 
legal  advisers,  was  both  difficult  and  dangerous.  He 
was  embarrassed  by  the  necessity  of  keeping  back 
part  of  his  case.  He  was  unable  to  tell  the  whole 
truth  about  Overbury 's  imprisonment.  He  could 
not  make  known  all  that  had  passed  between  Lady 
Essex  and  himself  before  marriage,  or  that  Over- 
bury  had  been  committed  to  the  Tower  to  prevent 
him  from  giving  evidence  which  would  have  certainly 
quashed  Lady  Essex's  proceedings  for  a  divorce. 
And,  in  truth,  if  he  mustered  up  courage  to  tell 
this  tale  of  shame,  he  could  not  hope  that  the  peers, 
most  of  whom  were  his  enemies,  would  give  credence 
to  it,  or  that,  if  they  believed  it,  they  would  refrain 
from  delivering  an  adverse  verdict. 

Yet  he  bore  himself  with  courage  and  ability, 
when,  by  the  flickering  light  of  torches,  for  the  day 
had  gone  down,  he  rose  to  make  his  defence.  Ac- 
knowledging that  he  had  consented  to  Overbury' s 
imprisonment  in  order  that  he  might  throw  no 
obstacles  in  the  way  of  his  marriage  with  Lady 
Essex,  he  firmly  denied  that  he  had  known  anything 
of  attempts  to  poison  him.  The  tarts  he  had  sent 
were  wholesome,  and  of  a  kind  to  which  Overbury 
was  partial ;  if  any  had  been  tampered  with,  he  was 
unaware  of  it.  The  powders  he  had  received  from 
Sir  Eobert  Killigrew,  and  simply  sent  them  on  ;  and 
Overbury  had  admitted,  in  a  letter  which  was  before 


122  WITCH,  WARLOCK,  AND  MAGICIAN.        [BOOK  I. 

the  Court,  that  they  had  done  him  no  mischief. 
Here  Crew  interrupted  :  The  three  powders  from 
Killigrew  had  been  duly  accounted  for  ;  but  there 
was  a  fourth  powder,  which  had  not  been  accounted 
for,  and  had  (it  was  assumed)  contained  poison. 
Now,  it  was  improbable  that  the  Earl  could  re- 
member the  exact  history  of  every  powder  sent  to 
Overbury  two  years  before,  and,  besides,  it  was  a 
mere  assumption  on  the  part  of  the  prosecution  that 
this  fourth  powder  was  poison.  But  Somerset's 
inability  to  meet  this  point  was  made  the  most  of, 
and  gave  the  peers  a  sufficient  pretext  for  declaring 
him  guilty.  The  Earl  received  his  sentence  with 
the  composure  he  had  exhibited  throughout  the 
arduous  day,  which  had  shown  how  a  nature 
enervated  by  luxury  and  indulgence  can  be  braced 
up  by  the  chill  air  of  adversity,  and  contented  him- 
self with  expressing  a  hope  that  the  Court  would 
intercede  with  the  King  for  mercy. 

I  have  dwelt  at  some  length  on  the  details  of  this 
celebrated  trial  because  it  is  the  last  (in  English 
jurisprudence)  in  which  men  and  women  of  rank 
have  been  mixed  up  with  the  secret  practices  of  the 
magician  ;  though,  for  other  reasons,  it  is  one  of 
very  unusual  interest.  In  briefly  concluding  the 
recital,  I  may  state  that  James  was  greatly  relieved 
when  the  trial  was  over,  and  he  found  that  nothing 
damaging  to  himself  had  been  disclosed.  It  is 
certain  that  Somerset  was  in  possession  of  some 
dark  secret,  the  revelation  of  which  was  much 
dreaded  by  the  King  ;  so  that  precautions  had  even 


CHAP.  IV.]  DR.    LAMBE.  123 

been  taken,  or  at  all  events  meditated,  to  remove 
him  from  the  Court  if  he  entered  upon  the  dangerous 
topic,  and  to  continue  the  trial  in  his  absence.  He 
would  probably  have  been  silenced  by  force.  The 
Earl,  however,  refrained  from  hazardous  disclosures, 
and  James  could  breathe  in  peace. 

On  July  13,  the  King  pardoned  Lady  Somerset, 
who  was  certainly  the  guiltiest  of  all  concerned. 
The  Earl  was  left  in  prison,  with  sentence  of  death 
suspended  over  him  for  several  years,  in  order,  no 
doubt,  to  terrify  him  into  silence.  A  few  months 
before  his  death,  James  appears  to  have  satisfied 
himself  that  he  had  nothing  to  fear,  and  ordered  the 
Earl's  release  (January,  1622).  Had  he  lived,  he 
would  probably  have  restored  him  to  his  former  in- 
fluence and  favour.* 

DE.    LAMBE. 

A  worthy  successor  to  Simon  Forman  appeared  in 
Dr.  Lambe,  or  Lamb,  who,  in  the  first  two  Stuart 
reigns,  attained  a  wide  celebrity  as  an  astrologer  and 
a  quack  doctor.  A  curious  story  respecting  his  pre- 
tended magical  powers  is  related  by  Richard  Baxter 
in  his  «  Certainty  of  the  World  of  Spirits  '  (1691). 
Meeting  two  acquaintances  in  the  street,  who 
evidently  desired  some  experience  of  his  skill  in  the 
occult  art,  he  invited  them  home  with  him,  and 

*  See  '  The  State  Trials  ;'  '  The  Carew  Letters ;'  Spedding, 
'  Life  and  Letters  of  Lord  Bacon ;'  Amos,  *  The  Grand  Oyer  of 
Poisoning ;'  and  S.  K.  Gardiner,  *  History  of  England,'  vol.  iv., 
1607-1616. 


124  WITCH,  WARLOCK,  AND  MAGICIAN.        [BOOK  I. 

ushered  them  into  an  inner  chamber.  There,  to  their 
amazement,  a  tree  sprang  up  before  their  eyes  in  the 
middle  of  the  floor.  Before  they  had  ceased  to 
wonder  at  this  sight  surprising,  three  diminutive  men 
entered,  with  tiny  axes  in  their  hands,  and,  nimbly 
setting  to  work,  soon  felled  the  tree.  The  doctor 
then  dismissed  his  guests,  who  went  away  with  a 
conviction  that  he  was  as  potent  a  necromancer  as 
Roger  Bacon  or  Cornelius  Agrippa. 

That  same  night  a  tremendous  gale  arose,  so  that 
the  house  of  one  of  Lambe's  visitors  rocked  to  and 
fro,  threatening  to  topple  over  with  a  crash,  and  bury 
the  man  and  his  wife  in  the  ruins.  In  great  terror 
his  wife  inquired,  '  Were  you  not  at  Dr.  Lambe's 
to-day?'  The  husband  acknowledged  that  it  was  so. 
1  And  did  you  bring  anything  away  from  his  house  ?' 
Yes:  when  the  dwarfs  felled  the  tree,  he  had  been 
foolish  enough  to  pick  up  some  of  the  chips,  and  put 
them  in  his  pocket.  Here  was  the  cause  of  the  hurri- 
cane !  With  all  speed  he  got  rid  of  the  chips ;  the 
storm  immediately  subsided,  and  the  remainder  of  the 
night  was  spent  in  undisturbed  repose. 

Lambe  was  notorious  for  the  lewdness  of  his  life 
and  his  evil  habits.  But  his  supposed  skill  and 
success  as  a  soothsayer  led  to  his  being  frequently 
consulted  by  George  Villiers,  Duke  of  Buckingham, 
with  the  result  that  each  helped  to  swell  the  volume 
of  the  other's  unpopularity.  The  Puritans  were 
angered  at  the  Duke's  resort  to  a  man  of  Lambe's 
character  and  calling  ;  the  populace  hated  Lambe  as 
the  tool  and  instrument  of  the  Duke.  In  1628  the 


CHAP.  IV.]  DR.    LAMBE.  125 

brilliant  favourite  of  Charles  I.  was  the  best-hated 
man  in  England,  and  every  slander  was  hurled  at 
him  that  the  resources  of  political  animosity  could 
supply.  The  ballads  of  the  time — an  indisputably 
satisfactory  barometer  of  public  opinion — inveighed 
bitterly  and  even  furiously  against  his  luxuriousness, 
his  love  of  dress,  his  vanity,  his  immorality,  and  his 
proved  incompetence  as  soldier  and  statesman.  He 
was  accused  of  having  poisoned  Lords  Hamilton, 
Lennox,  Southampton,  Oxford,  even  James  I.  him- 
self. He  had  sat  in  his  boat,  out  of  the  reach  of 
danger,  while  his  soldiers  perished  under  the  guns  of 
Ee.  He  had  corrupted  the  chastest  women  in  England 
by  means  of  the  love-philtre  which  Dr.  Lambe  con- 
cocted for  him.  In  a  word,  the  air  was  full  of  the 
darkest  and  dreadest  accusations. 

Lambe's  connection  with  the  Duke  brought  on  a 
catastrophe  which  his  magical  art  failed  to  foresee  or 
prevent.  He  was  returning,  one  summer  evening — it 
was  June  13 — from  the  play  at  the  Fortune  Theatre, 
when  he  was  recognised  by  a  company  of  London 
prentices.  With  a  fine  scent  for  the  game,  they 
crowded  round  the  unfortunate  magician,  and  hooted 
at  him  as  the  Duke's  devil,  hustling  him  to  and  fro, 
and  treating  him  with  cruel  roughness.  To  save 
himself  from  further  violence,  he  hired  some  sailors 
to  escort  him  to  a  tavern  in  Moorgate  Street,  where 
he  supped.  On  going  forth  again,  he  found  that 
many  of  his  persecutors  lingered  about  the  door ;  and, 
bursting  into  a  violent  rage,  he  threatened  them  with 
his  vengeance,  and  told  them  '  he  would  make  them 


126  WITCH,  WARLOCK,  AND  MAGICIAN.         [BOOK  I. 

dance  naked/  Still  guarded  by  his  sailors,  he 
hurried  homeward,  with  the  mob  close  at  his  heels, 
shouting  and  gesticulating,  and  increasing  every 
minute  both  in  numbers  and  fury.  In  the  Old 
Jewry  he  turned  to  face  them  with  his  protectors  ; 
but  this  movement  of  defence,  construed  into  one  of 
defiance,  stimulated  the  passions  of  the  populace  to  an 
ungovernable  pitch ;  they  made  a  rush  at  him,  from 
which  he  took  refuge  in  the  Windmill  tavern.  A 
volley  of  stones  smashed  against  pane  and  door  ;  and 
with  shouts,  screams,  and  yells,  they  demanded  that 
he  should  be  given  up.  But  the  landlord,  a  man  of 
courage  and  humanity,  would  not  throw  the  poor 
wretch  to  his  pursuers  as  the  huntsman  throws  the 
captured  fox  to  the  fangs  of  his  hounds.  He  detained 
him  for  some  time,  and  then  he  provided  him  with  a 
disguise  before  he  would  suffer  him  to  leave.  The 
precaution  was  useless,  for  hate  is  keen  of  vision: 
the  man  was  recognised ;  the  pursuit  was  resumed, 
and  he  was  hunted  through  the  streets,  pale  and 
trembling  with  terror,  his  dress  disordered  and  soiled, 
until  he  again  sought  an  asylum.  The  master  of  this 
house,  however,  fell  into  a  paroxysm  of  alarm,  and 
dismissed  him  hastily,  with  four  constables  as  a  body- 
guard. But  what  could  these  avail  against  hundreds? 
They  were  swept  aside — the  doctor,  bleeding  and 
exhausted,  was  flung  to  the  ground,  and  sticks  and 
stones  rained  blows  upon  him  until  he  was  no  longer 
able  to  ask  for  mercy.  One  of  his  eyes  was  beaten 
out  of  its  socket ;  and  when  he  was  rescued  at  length 
by  a  posse  of  constables  and  soldiers,  and  conveyed  to 


CHAP.  IV.]  DR.    LAMBE.  127 

the  Compter  prison,  it  was  a  dying  man  who  was 
borne  unconscious  across  its  threshold. 

Such  was  the  miserable  ending  of  Dr.  Lambe. 
Charles  I.  was  much  affected  when  he  heard  of  it ; 
for  he  saw  that  it  was  a  terrible  indication  of  the 
popular  hostility  against  Lambe' s  patron.  The 
murderers  had  not  scrupled  to  say  that  if  the  Duke 
had  been  there  they  would  have  handled  him  worse ; 
they  would  have  minced  his  flesh,  so  that  every  one 
of  them  might  have  had  a  piece.  Summoning  to  his 
presence  the  Lord  Mayor  and  Aldermen,  the  King 
bade  them  discover  the  offenders ;  and  when  they 
failed  in  what  was  an  impossible  task,  he  imposed 
a  heavy  fine  upon  the  City. 

The  ballad -writers  of  the  day  found  in  the  magi- 
cian's fate  an  occasion  for  attacking  Buckingham : 
one  of  them,  commenting  on  his  supposed  contempt 
for  Parliament,  puts  the  following  arrogant  defiance 
into  his  mouth: 

'  Meddle  with  common  matters,  common  wrongs, 
To  th'  House  of  Commons  common  things  belong.  .  . 
Leave  him  the  oar  that  best  knows  how  to  row 
And  State  to  him  that  the  best  State  doth  know.  .  . 
Though  Lambe  be  dead,  /'//  stand,  and  you  shall  see 
I'll  smile  at  them  that  can  but  bark  at  me.' 


1  28  WITCH,  WARLOCK,  AND  MAGICIAN.        [BOOK  I. 


CHAPTER  Y. 

THE     LAST      OF      THE     ENGLISH    MAGICIANS  :      WILLIAM 

LILLY. 

'  Lilly  was  a  prominent,  and,  in  the  opinion  of  many  of  his 
contemporaries,  a  very  important  personage  in  the  most  eventful 
period  of  English  history.  He  was  a  principal  actor  in  the 
farcical  scenes  which  diversified  the  bloody  tragedy  of  civil  war ; 
and  while  the  King  and  the  Parliament  were  striving  for  mastery 
in  the  field,  he  was  deciding  their  destinies  in  the  closet.  The 
weak  and  the  credulous  of  both  parties  who  sought  to  be 
instructed  in  "  destiny's  dark  counsels,"  flocked  to  consult  the 
"  wily  Archimagus,"  who,  with  exemplary  impartiality,  meted  out 
victory  and  good  fortune  to  his  clients,  according  to  the  extent  of 
their  faith  and  the  weight  of  their  purses.  A  few  profane 
Cavaliers  might  make  his  name  the  burthen  of  their  malignant 
rhymes — a  few  of  the  more  scrupulous  among  the  saints  might 
keep  aloof  in  sanctified  abhorrence  of  the  "  Stygian  sophister  "- 
but  the  great  majority  of  the  people  lent  a  willing  and  reverential 
ear  to  his  prophecies  and  prognostications.  Nothing  was  too  high 
or  too  low,  too  mighty  or  too  insignificant,  for  the  grasp  of  his 
genius.  The  stars,  his  informants,  were  as  communicative  on  the 
most  trivial  as  on  the  most  important  subjects.  If  a  scheme  was 
set  on  foot  to  rescue  the  King,  or  to  retrieve  a  stray  trinket ;  to 
restore  the  royal  authority,  or  to  make  a  frail  damsel  an  honest 
woman ;  to  cure  the  nation  of  anarchy,  or  a  lap-dog  of  a  surfeit 
— William  Lilly  was  the  oracle  to  be  consulted.  His  almanacks 
were  spelled  over  in  the  tavern,  and  quoted  in  the  Senate  ;  they 
nerved  the  arm  of  the  soldier,  and  rounded  the  period  of  the 
orator.  The  fashionable  beauty,  dashing  along  in  her  calash  from 


CHAP.  V.]      LAST  OF  THE  ENGLISH  MAGTCIANS.  129 

St.  James's  or  the  Mall,  and  the  prim  starched  dame  from  Watling 
Street  or  Bucklersbury,  with  a  staid  foot-boy,  in  a  plush  jerkin, 
plodding  behind  her — the  reigning  toast  among  "  the  men  of  wit 
about  town,"  and  the  leading  groaner  in  a  tabernacle  concert — 
glided  alternately  into  the  study  of  the  trusty  wizard,  and  poured 
into  his  attentive  ear  strange  tales  of  love,  or  trade,  or  treason. 
The  Roundhead  stalked  in  at  one  door,  whilst  the  Cavalier  was 
hurried  out  at  the  other. 

'  The  confessions  of  a  man  so  variously  consulted  and  trusted, 
if  written  with  the  candour  of  a  Cardan  or  a  Rousseau,  would 
indeed  be  invaluable.  The  "  Memoirs  of  William  Lilly,  though 
deficient  in  this  particular,  yet  contain  a  variety  of  curious  and 
interesting  anecdotes  of  himself  and  his  contemporaries,  which, 
when  the  vanity  of  the  writer  or  the  truth  of  his  art  is  not  con- 
cerned, may  be  received  with  implicit  credence. 

'  The  simplicity  and  apparent  candour  of  his  narrative  might 
induce  a  hasty  reader  of  this  book  to  believe  him  a  well-meaning 
but  somewhat  silly  personage,  the  dupe  of  his  own  speculations — 
the  deceiver  of  himself  as  well  as  of  others.  But  an  attentive 
examination  of  the  events  of  his  life,  even  as  recorded  by  himself, 
will  not  warrant  so  favourable  an  interpretation.  His  systematic 
and  successful  attention  to  his  own  interest,  his  dexterity  in 
keeping  on  "the  windy  side  of  the  law,"  his  perfect  political 
pliability,  and  his  presence  of  mind  and  fertility  of  resources 
when  entangled  in  difficulties,  indicate  an  accomplished  impostor, 
not  a  crazy  enthusiast.  It  is  very  possible  and  probable  that,  at 
the  outset  of  his  career,  he  was  a  real  believer  in  the  truth  and 
lawfulness  of  his  art,  and  that  he  afterwards  felt  no  inclination 
to  part  with  so  pleasant  and  so  profitable  a  delusion.  .  .  Of  his 
success  in  deception,  the  present  narrative  exhibits  abundant  proofs. 
The  number  of  his  dupes  was  not  confined  to  the  vulgar  and  illiter- 
ate, but  included  individuals  of  real  worth  and  learning,  of  hostile 
parties  and  sects,  who  courted  his  acquaintance  and  respected  his 
predictions.  His  proceedings  were  deemed  of  sufficient  import- 
ance to  be  twice  made  the  subject  of  a  Parliamentary  inquiry ; 
and  even  after  the  Restoration — when  a  little  more  scepticism,  if 
not  more  wisdom,  might  have  been  expected — we  find  him 
examined  by  a  Committee  of  the  House  of  Commons  respecting 
his  foreknowledge  of  the  Great  Fire  of  London.  We  know  not 
whether  it  "  should  more  move  our  anger  or  our  mirth  "  to  see 
our  assemblage  of  British  Senators — the  contemporaries  of 

9 


130  WITCH,  WARLOCK,  AND  MAGICIAN.        [BOOK  I. 

Hampden  and  Falkland,  of  Milton  and  Clarendon,  in  an  age 
which  moved  into  action  so  many  and  such  mighty  energies — 
gravely  engaged  in  ascertaining  the  cause  of  a  great  national 
calamity  from  the  prescience  of  a  knavish  fortune-teller,  and 
puzzling  their  wisdoms  to  interpret  the  symbolical  flames  which 
blazed  in  the  misshapen  woodcuts  of  his  oracular  publications. 

'As  a  set-off  against  these  honours  may  be  mentioned  the 
virulent  and  unceasing  attacks  of  almost  all  the  party  scribblers 
of  the  d&y ;  but  their  abuse  he  shared  in  common  with  men 
whose  talents  and  virtues  have  outlived  the  malice  of  their  con- 
temporaries. ' — Retrospective  Review. 

WILLIAM  LILLY  was  born  at  Diseworth,  in  Leicester- 
shire, on  May  1,  1602.  He  came  of  an  old  and  re- 
putable family  of  the  yeoman  class,  and  his  father- 
was  at  one  time  a  man  of  substance,  though,  from 
causes  unexplained,  he  fell  into  a  state  of  great  im- 
poverishment. William  from  the  first  was  intended 
to  be  a  scholar,  and  at  the  age  of  eleven  was  sent  to 
the  grammar-school  at  Ashby -de-la- Zouch,  where  he 
made  a  fair  progress  in  his  classical  studies.  In  his 
sixteenth  year  he  began  to  be  much  troubled  in  his 
dreams  regarding  his  chances  of  future  salvation,  and 
felt  a  large  concern  for  the  spiritual  welfare  of  his 
parents.  He  frequently  spent  the  night  in  weeping 
and  praying,  and  in  an  agony  of  fear  lest  his  sins 
should  offend  .God.  That  in  this  exhibition  of  early 
piety  he  was  already  preparing  for  his  career  of  self- 
hypocrisy  and  deception,  I  will  not  be  censorious 
enough  to  assert ;  but  in  after-life  his  conscience  was 
certainly  much  less  sensitive,  and  he  ceased  to  trouble 
himself  about  the  souls  of  any  of  his  kith  and  kin. 

He  was  about  eighteen  when  the  collapse  of  his 
father's  circumstances  compelled  him  to  leave  school. 


CHAP.   V.]      LAST  OF  THE  ENGLISH  MAGICIANS.  131 

He  had  used  his  time  and  opportunities  so  well  that 
he  had  gained  the  highest  form,  and  the  highest  place 
on  that  form.  He  spoke  Latin  as  readily  as  his 
native  tongue:  could  improvise  verses  upon  any 
theme — all  kinds  of  verses,  hexameter,  pentameter, 
phalenciac,  iambic,  sapphic — so  that  if  any  ingenious 
youth  came  from  remote  schools  to  hold  public  dis- 
putations, Lilly  was  always  selected  as  the  Ashby- de- 
la- Zouch  champion,  and  in  that  capacity  invariably 
won  distinction.  '  If  any  minister  came  to  examine 
us,'  he  said,  '  I  was  brought  forth  against  him,  nor 
would  I  argue  with  him  unless  in  the  Latin  tongue, 
which  I  found  few  could  well  speak  without  breaking 
Priscian's  head;  which,  if  once  they  did,  I  would 
complain  to  my  master,  Non  bene  intelliget  linguare 
Latinam,  nee  prorsus  loquitur.  In  the  derivation  of 
words,  I  found  most  of  them  defective;  nor,  indeed, 
were  any  of  them  good  grammarians.  All  and  every 
of  those  scholars  who  were  of  my  form  and  stand- 
ing went  to  Cambridge,  and  proved  excellent  divines ; 
only  I,  poor  William  Lilly,  was  not  so  happy; 
fortune  then  frowning  upon  my  father's  present  con- 
dition, he  not  in  any  capacity  to  maintain  me  at  the 
University.' 

The  res  angustce  domi  pressing  heavily  upon  the 
quick-witted,  ingenious,  and  active  young  fellow,  he 
set  forth — as  so  many  Dick  Whittingtons  have  done 
before  and  since — to  make  his  fortune  in  London 
City.  His  purse  held  only  20s.,  with  which  he  pur- 
chased a  new  suit — hose,  doublets,  trunk,  and  the 
like — and  with  a  donation  from  his  friends  of  10s.,  he 

9—2 


132  WITCH,  WARLOCK,  AND  MAGICIAN.        [BOOK  I. 

took  leave  of  his  father  (i  then  in  Leicester  gaol  for 
debt ')  on  April  4th,  and  tramping  his  way  to  London, 
in  company  with  '  Bradshaw  the  carrier/  arrived 
there  on  the  9th.  When  he  had  gratified  the  carrier 
and  his  servants,  his  capital  was  reduced  to  7s.  6d. 
in  money,  a  suit  of  clothes  on  his  back,  two  shirts, 
three  bands,  one  pair  of  shoes,  and  as  many  stockings. 
The  master  to  whom  he  had  been  recommended — 
Leicestershire  born,  like  himself — a  certain  Gilbert 
Wright,  received  him  kindly,  purchasing  for  him  a 
new  cloak — a  welcome  addition  to  Lilly's  scanty 
wardrobe;  and  Lilly  then  settled  down,  contentedly 
enough,  to  his  laborious  duties,  though  they  were 
hardly  of  a  kind  to  gratify  the  tastes  of  an  earnest 
scholar.  '  My  work,*  he  says,  4  was  to  go  before  my 
master  to  church ;  to  attend  my  master  when  he 
went  abroad ;  to  make  clean  his  shoes ;  sweep  the 
street ;  help  to  drive  bucks  when  he  washed ;  fetch 
water  in  a  tub  from  the  Thames  (I  have  helped  to 
carry  eighteen  tubs  of  water  in  one  morning) ;  weed 
the  garden  ;  all  manner  of  drudgeries  I  willingly  per- 
formed ;  scrape  trenchers/  etc. 

In  1624  his  mistress  (he  says)  died  of  cancer  in 
the  breast,  and  he  came  into  possession — by  way  of 
legacy,  I  suppose — of  a  small  scarlet  bag  belonging 
to  her,  which  contained  some  rare  and  curious  things. 
Among  others,  several  sigils,  amulets,  or  charms : 
some  of  Jupiter  in  trine,  others  of  the  nature  of 
Venus ;  some  of  iron,  and  one  of  gold — pure  angel 
gold,  of  the  bigness  of  a  thirty -shilling  piece  of  King 


CHAP.   V.]     LAST  OF  THE  ENGLISH  MAGICIANS.  133 

James's  coinage.  In  the  circumference,  on  one  side, 
was  engraven,  Vicit  Leo  de  tribu  Judce  Tetragram- 
maton,  and  within  the  middle  a  holy  lamb.  In  the 
circumference  on  the  obverse  side  were  Amraphel  and 
three  +++,  and  in  the  centre,  Sanctus  Petrus  Alpha 
et  Omega. 

According  to  Lilly,  this  sigil  was  framed  under  the 
following  circumstances  : 

'  His  mistress's  former  husband  travelling  into  Sussex,  happened 
to  lodge  in  an  inn,  and  to  lie  in  a  chamber  thereof,  wherein,  not 
many  months  before,  a  country  grazier  had  lain,  and  in  the  night 
cut  his  own  throat.  After  this  night's  lodging  he  was  per- 
petually, and  for  many  years,  followed  by  a  spirit,  which  vocally 
and  articulately  provoked  him  to  cut  his  throat.  He  was  used 
frequently  to  say,  "  I  defy  thee,  I  defy  thee,"  and  to  spit  at  the 
spirit.  This  spirit  followed  him  many  years,  he  not  making  any- 
body acquainted  with  it ;  at  last  he  grew  melancholy  and  discon- 
tented, which  being  carefully  observed  by  his  wife,  she  many 
times  hearing  him  pronounce,  "I  defy  thee,"  desired  him  to 
acquaint  her  with  the  cause  of  his  distemper,  which  he  then  did. 
Away  she  went  to  Dr.  Simon  Forman,  who  lived  then  in  Lambeth, 
and  acquaints  him  with  it ;  who  having  framed  this  sigil,  and 
hanged  it  about  his  neck,  he  wearing  it  continually  until  he  died, 
was  never  more  molested  by  the  spirit.  I  sold  the  sigil  for 
thirty-two  shillings,  but  transcribed  the  words  verbatim  as  I  have 
related.' 

Lilly  continued  some  time  longer  in  the  service 
of  Master  Gilbert  Wright.  When  the  plague  broke 
out  in  London  in  1625,  he,  with  a  fellow -servant, 
was  left  in  charge  of  his  employer's  house.  He  seems 
to  have  taken  things  easily  enough,  notwithstanding 
the  sorrow  and  suffering  that  surrounded  him  on 
every  side.  Purchasing  a  bass-viol,  he  hired  a  master 
to  instruct  him  in  playing  it  ;  the  intervals  he  spent 
in  bowling  in  Lincoln's  Inn  Fields,  with  Wat  the 


134  WITCH,  WARLOCK,   AND  MAGICIAN.        [BOOK  I. 

Cobbler,  Dick  the  Blacksmith,  and  such -like  com- 
panions. c  We  have  sometimes  been  at  our  work  at 
six  in  the  morning,  and  so  continued  till  three  or 
four  in  the  afternoon,  many  times  without  bread  or 
drink  all  that  while.  Sometimes  I  went  to  church 
and  heard  funeral  sermons,  of  which  there  was  then 
great  plenty.  At  other  times  I  went  early  to  St. 
Antholin's,  in  London,  where  there  was  every  morn- 
ing a  sermon.  The  most  able  people  of  the  whole 
city  and  suburbs  were  out  of  town  ;  if  any  remained, 
it  were  such  as  were  engaged  by  parish  officers  to 
remain  ;  no  habit  of  a  gentleman  or  woman  con- 
tinued ;  the  woeful  calamity  of  that  year  was 
grievous,  people  dying  in  the  open  fields  and  in  open 
streets.  At  last,  in  August,  the  bills  of  mortality  so 
increased,  that  very  few  people  had  thoughts  of 
surviving  the  contagion.  The  Sunday  before  the 
great  bill  came  forth,  which  was  of  five  thousand  and 
odd  hundreds,  there  was  appointed  a  sacrament  at 
Clement  Danes';  during  the  distributing  whereof  I 
do  very  well  remember  we  sang  thirteen  parts  of  the 
11 9th  Psalm.  One  Jacob,  our  minister  (for  we  had 
three  that  day,  the  communion  was  so  great),  fell  sick 
as  he  was  giving  the  sacrament,  went  home,  and  was 
buried  of  the  plague  the  Thursday  following/ 

Having  been  led  by  various  circumstances  to  apply 
himself  to  the  study  of  astrology,  he  sought  a  guide 
and  teacher  in  the  person  of  one  Master  Evans,  whom 
he  describes  as  poor,  ignorant,  boastful,  drunken,  and 
knavish  ;  he  had  a  character,  or  reputation,  however, 
for  erecting  a  figure  (or  horoscope)  predicting  future 


CHAP.   V.]      LAST  OF  THE  ENGLISH  MAGICIANS.  135 

events,  discovering  secrets,  restoring  stolen  goods, 
and  even  for  raising  spirits,  when  it  so  pleased  him. 
Of  this  crafty  cheat  he  relates  an  extraordinary  story. 
Some  time  before  Lilly  became  acquainted  with  him, 
Lord  Bothwell  and  Sir  Kenelm  Digby  visited  him  at 
his  lodgings  in  the  Minories,  in  order  that  they 
might  enjoy  what  is  nowadays  called  a  spiritualistic 
seance.'  The  magician  drew  the  mysterious  circle, 
and  placed  himself  and  his  visitors  within  it.  He 
began  his  invocations  ;  but  suddenly  Evans  was 
caught  up  from  the  others,  and  transferred,  he  knew 
not  how,  to  Battersea  Fields,  near  the  Thames.  Next 
morning  a  countryman  discovered  him  there,  fast 
asleep,  and,  having  roused  him,  informed  him,  in 
answer  to  his  inquiries,  where  he  was.  Evans  in  the 
afternoon  sent  a  messenger  to  his  wife,  to  acquaint 
her  with  his  safety,  and  dispel  the  apprehensions  she 
might  reasonably  entertain.  Just  as  the  messenger 
arrived,  Sir  Kenelm  Digby  also  arrived,  not  un- 
naturally curious  to  learn  the  issue  of  the  preceding 
day's  adventure.  This  monstrous  story  Evans  told 
to  Lilly,  who,  I  suppose,  affected  to  believe  it,  and 
asked  him  how  such  an  issue  chanced  to  attend  on 
his  experiment.  Because,  the  knave  replied,  in  per- 
forming the  invocation  rites,  he  had  carelessly 
omitted  the  necessary  suffumigation,  and  at  this 
omission  the  spirit  had  taken  offence.  It  is  evident 
that  the  spirits  insist  on  being  treated  with  due 
regard  to  etiquette. 

Lilly,  by  the  way,  records  some  quaint  biographical 
particulars   respecting  the   astrologers  of  his  time  ; 


136  WITCH,  WARLOCK,  AND  MAGICIAN.       [BOOK  I. 

they  are  not  of  a  nature,  however,  to  elevate  our 
ideas  of  the  profession.  One  would  almost  suppose 
that  free  intercourse  with  the  inhabitants  of  the 
unseen  world  had  an  exceptionally  bad  effect  on  the 
morals  and  manners  of  the  mortals  who  enjoyed  it  ; 
or  else  the  spirits  must  have  had  a  penchant  for  low 
society.  Lilly  speaks  of  one  William  Poole,  who 
was  a  nibbler  at  astrological  science,  and,  in  addition, 
a  gardener,  an  apparitor,  a  drawer  of  lime,  a  plas- 
terer, a  bricklayer  ;  in  fact,  he  bragged  of  knowing  no 
fewer  than  seventeen  trades — such  was  the  versatility 
of  his  genius  !  It  is  pleasant  to  know  that  this  won- 
derfully clever  fellow  could  condescend  to  '  drolling,' 
and  even  to  writing  poetry  (heaven  save  the  mark!), 
of  which  Lilly,  in  his  desire  to  astonish  posterity,  has 
preserved  a  specimen.  Master  Poole's  rhymes,  how- 
ever, are  much  too  offensively  coarse  to  be  transferred 
to  these  pages. 

This  man  of  many  callings  died  about  1651  or 
1652,  at  St.  Mary  Overy's,  in  South wark,  and  Lilly 
quotes  a  portion  of  his  last  will  and  testament  : 

'  Item.  I  give  to  Dr.  Arder  all  my  books,  and  one  manuscript 
of  my  own,  worth  one  hundred  of  Lilly's  Introduction. 

'  Item.  If  Dr.  Arder  gives  my  wife  anything  that  is  mine,  I 
wish  the  D — 1  may  fetch  him  body  and  soul.' 

Terrified  at  this  uncompromising  malediction,  the 
doctor  handed  over  all  the  deceased  conjurer's  books 
and  goods  to  Lilly,  who  in  his  turn  handed  them 
over  to  the  widow  ;  and  in  this  way  Poole's  curse 
was  eluded,  and  his  widow  got  her  rights. 

The  true  name  of  this   Dr.   Arder,  it  seems,  was 


CHAP.  V.]     LAST  OF  THE  ENGLISH  MAGICIANS.  137 

•  Richard  Delahay.  He  had  originally  practised  as  an 
attorney  ;  but  falling  into  poverty,  and  being  driven 
from  his  Derbyshire  home  by  the  Countess  of  Shrews- 
bury, he  turned  to  astrology  and  physic,  and  looked 
round  about  him  for  patients,  though  with  no  very 
great  success.  He  had  at  one  time  known  a  Charles 
Sledd,  a  friend  of  Dr.  Dee,  '  who  used  the  crystal, 
and  had  a  very  perfect  sight ' — in  modern  parlance, 
was  a  good  medium. 

Dr.  Arder  often  declared  to  Lilly  that  an  angel 
had  on  one  occasion  offered  him  a  lease  of  life  for  a 
thousand  years,  but  for  some  unexplained  reasons  he 
declined  the  valuable  freehold.  However,  he  out- 
lived the  Psalmist's  span,  dying  at  the  ripe  old  age 
of  eighty. 

A  much  more  famous  magician  was  John  Booker, 
who,  in  1632  and  1633,  gained  a  great  notoriety  by 
his  prediction  of  a  solar  eclipse  in  the  nineteenth 
degree  of  Aries,  1633,  taken  out  of  '  Leuitius  de  Magnis 
Conjunctionibus,'  namely,  '  0  Reges  et  Principes/  etc., 
both  the  King  of  Bohemia  and  Gustavus,  King  of 
Sweden,  dying  during  '  the  effects  of  that  eclipse.' 

John  Booker  was  born  at  Manchester,  of  good 
parentage,  in  1601.  In  his  youth  he  attained  a  very 
considerable  proficiency  in  the  Latin  tongue.  From 
his  early  years  we  may  take  it  that  he  was  destined 
to  become  an  astrologer — he  showed  so  great  a 
fancy  (otherwise  inexplicable  !)  for  poring  over  old 
almanacks.  In  his  teens  he  was  despatched  to 
London  to  serve  his  apprenticeship  to  a  haberdasher 


138  WITCH,  WARLOCK,  AND  MAGICIAN.        [BOOK  I. 

in  Lawrence  Lane.  But  whether  he  contracted  a 
distaste  for  the  trade,  or  lacked  the  capital  to  start 
on  his  own  account,  he  abandoned  it  on  reaching 
manhood,  and  started  as  a  writing-master  at  Hadley, 
in  Middlesex.  It  is  said  that  he  wrote  singularly 
well,  i  both  Secretary  and  Roman.'  Later  in  life  he 
officiated  as  clerk  to  Sir  Christopher  Clithero,  Alder- 
man of  London,  and  Justice  of  the  Peace,  and  also  to 
Sir  Hugh  Hammersley,  Alderman,  and  in  these 
responsible  positions  became  well  known  to  many 
citizens  who,  like  Cowper's  John  Gilpin,  were  '  of 
credit  and  renown/ 

In  star-craft  this  John  Booker  was  a  past  master  ! 
His  verses  upon  the  months,  framed  according  to  their 
different  astrological  significations,  t  being  blessed 
with  success,  according  to  his  predictions/  made  him 
known  all  over  England.  He  was  a  man  of  '  great 
honesty,'  abhorring  any  deceit  in  the  art  he  loved  and 
studied.  So  says  Lilly  ;  but  it  is  certain  that  if  an 
astrologer  be  in  earnest,  he  must  deceive  himself,  if 
he  do  not  deceive  others.  This  Booker  had  much 
good  fortune  in  detecting  thefts,  and  was  not  less  an 
adept  in  resolving  love-questions.  His  knowledge  of 
astronomy  was  by  no  means  limited  ;  he  understood 
a  good  deal  of  physic  ;  was  a  great  advocate  of  the 
antimonial  cup,  whose  properties  were  first  dis- 
covered by  Basil  Valentine  ;  not  unskilled  in  chemis- 
try, though  he  did  not  practise  it.  He  died  in  the 
sweet  odour  of  a  good  reputation  in  1667,  leaving 
behind  him  a  tolerable  library  (which  was  purchased 
by  Elias  Ashmole,  the  antiquary),  a  widow,  four 


CHAP.   V.]     LAST  OF  THE  ENGLISH  MAGICIANS.  139 

children,  and  the  MSS.  of  his  annual  prognostica- 
tions. During  the  Long  Parliament  period  he  pub- 
lished his  t  Bellum  Hibernicale,7  which  is  described 
as  l  a  very  sober  and  judicious  book,'  and,  not  long 
before  his  death,  a  small  treatise  on  Easter  Day, 
wherein  he  displayed  a  laudable  erudition. 

Lilly  has  also  something  to  say  about  a  Master 
Nicholas  Fiske,  licentiate  in  physic,  who  came  of  a 
good  old  family,  and  was  born  near  Framlingham,  in 
Suffolk.  He  was  educated  for  the  University,  but 
preferred  staying  at  home,  and  studying  astrology 
and  medicine,  which  he  afterwards  practised  at  Col- 
chester, and  at  several  places  in  London. 

'He  was  a  person  very  studious,  laborious,  of  good  appre- 
hension, and  had  by  his  own  industry  obtained  both  in  astrology, 
physic,  arithmetic,  astronomy,  geometry,  and  algebra,  singular 
judgment :  he  would  in  astrology  resolve  horary  questions  very 
soundly,  but  was  ever  diffident  of  his  own  abilities.  He  was  ex- 
quisitely skilful  in  the  art  of  directions  upon  nativities,  and  had  j 
a  .good  genius  in  performing  judgment  thereupon ;  but  very  un- 
happy he  was  that  he  had  no  genius  in  teaching  his  scholars,  for 
he  never  perfected  any.  His  own  son  Matthew  hath  often  told 
me  that  when  his  father  did  teach  any  scholars  in  his  time,  they 
would  principally  learn  of  him.  He  had  Scorpio  ascending  (/),  and  \ 
was  secretly  envious  to  those  he  thought  had  more  parts  than 
himself.  However,  I  must  be  ingenuous,  and  do  affirm  that  by 
frequent  conversation  with  him  I  came  to  know  which  were  the 
best  authors,  and  much  to  enlarge  my  judgment,  especially  in  the 
art  of  directions :  he  visited  me  most  days  once  after  I  became 
acquainted  with  him,  and  would  communicate  his  most  doubtful 
questions  unto  me,  and  accept  of  my  judgment  therein  rather 
than  his  own.' 

Resuming  his  own  life-story,  Lilly  records  an 
important  purchase  which  he  made  in  1634 — the 


140  WITCH,  WARLOCK,  AND  MAGICIAN.        [BOOK  I. 

great  astrological  treatise,  the  '  Ars  Notaria,'  a  large 
parchment  volume,  enriched  with  the  names  and 
pictures  of  those  angels  which  are  thought  and  be- 
lieved by  wise  men  to  teach  and  instruct  in  all  the 
several  liberal  sciences — as  if  heaven  were  a  scientific 
academy,  with  the  angels  giving  lectures  as  professors 
of  astrology,  medicine,  mathematics,  and  the  like  ! 
Next  he  describes  how  he  sought  to  extend  his  fame 
as  a  magician  by  attempting  the  discovery  of  a 
quantity  of  treasure  alleged  to  have  been  concealed 
in  the  cloister  of  Westminster  Abbey  ;  and  having 
obtained  permission  from  the  authorities,  he  repaired 
thither,  one  winter  night,  accompanied  by  several 
gentlemen,  and  by  one  John  Scott,  a  supposed  expert 
in  the  use  of  the  Mosaical  or  divining  rods.  The 
hazel  rods  were  duly  played  round  about  the  cloister, 
and  on  the  west  side  turned  one  over  the  other,  a 
proof  that  the  treasure  lay  there.  The  labourers, 
after  digging  to  a  depth  of  six  feet,  came  upon  a 
coffin  ;  but  as  it  was  not  heavy,  Lilly  refrained  from 
opening  it,  an  omission  which  he  afterwards  regretted. 
From  the  cloister  they  proceeded  to  the  Abbey 
Church,  where,  upon  a  sudden,  so  fierce,  so  high,  so 
blustering  and  loud  a  wind  burst  forth,  that  they 
feared  the  west  end  of  the  church  would  fall  upon 
them.  Their  rods  would  not  move  at  all  ;  the 
candles  and  torches,  all  but  one,  were  extinguished, 
or  burned  very  dimly.  John  Scott,  Lilly's  partner, 
was  amazed,  turned  pale,  and  knew  not  what  to  think 
or  do,  until  Lilly  gave  command  to  dismiss  the 
demons.  This  being  done,  all  was  quiet  again,  and  the 


CHAP.   V.]      LAST  OF  THE  ENGLISH  MAGICIANS.  141 

party  returned  home  about  midnight.  *  I  could  never 
since  be  induced/  says  Master  Lilly,  with  sublime 
impertinence,  *  to  join  with  any  in  such-like  actions. 
The  true  miscarriage  of  the  business,'  he  adds,  '  was 

O  ' 

by  reason  of  so  many  people  being  present  at  the 
operation  ;  for  there  were  about  thirty,  some  laughing, 
others  deriding,  so  that  if  we  had  not  dismissed  the 
demons,  I  believe  most  part  of  the  Abbey  Church  had 
been  blown  down  f  Secrecy  and  intelligent  operators,' 
he  adds,  '  with  a  strong  confidence  and  knowledge  of 
what  they  are  doing,  are  best  for  this  work/  They 
are,  at  all  events,  for  conspiracy  and  collusion. 

In  reading  a  narrative  like  this,  one  finds  it  not 
easy  to  satisfy  one's  self  how  far  it  has  been  written  in 
good  faith,  or  how  far  it  is  compounded  of  credulity 
or  of  conscious  deception — how  far  the  writer  has 
unwittingly  imposed  upon  himself,  or  is  knowingly 
imposing  upon  the  reader.  That  Lilly  should  gravely 
transmit  to  posterity  such  a  record,  if  aware  that  it 
was  an  audacious  invention,  seems  hardly  credible  ; 
and  yet  it  is  still  less  credible  that  a  man  so  shrewd 
and  keen-witted  should  believe  in  the  operations  of 
demons,  and  in  their  directing  a  blast  of  wind  against 
the  Abbey  Church  because  they  resented  his  search 
for  a  hidden  treasure,  to  which  they  at  least  could  have 
no  claim  !  As  great  wit  to  madness  nearly  is  allied, 
so  is  there  a  dangerous  proximity  between  credulity 
and  imposture,  and  the  man  who  begins  by  being  a 
dupe  often  ends  by  becoming  a  knave.  Perhaps 
there  are  times  when  the  axiom  should  be  reversed. 

Lilly's  astrological  pursuits  appear  to  have  affected 


142  WITCH,  WAKLOCK,  AND  MAGICIAN.       [BOOK   I. 

his  health :  he  grew  lean  and  haggard,  and  suffered 
much  from  hypochondria  ;  so  that,  at  length,  he 
resolved  to  try  the  curative  effects  of  country  air, 
and  removed,  in  the  spring  of  1636,  to  Hersham,  a 
quiet  and  picturesque  hamlet,  near  Walton-on-the- 
Thames.  He  did  not  give  up  his  London  house, 
however,  until  thirty  years  later  (1665),  when  he 
finally  settled  at  Hersham  as  a  country  gentleman, 
and  a  person  of  no  small  consideration. 

Having  recovered  his  health  in  his  rural  quarters, 
our  great  magician  returned  to  London,  and  practised 
openly  his  favourite  art.  But  a  secret  intelligence 
apprising  him  that  he  was  not  sufficiently  an  adept, 
he  again  withdrew  into  the  country,  where  he 
remained  for  a  couple  of  years,  immersed,  I  suppose, 
in  occult  studies.  We  may  take  it  that  he  really 
entered  on  a  professional  career  in  1644,  when  a 
'  happy  thought '  inspired  him  to  bring  out  the  first 
yearly  issue  of  his  prophetical  almanac,  or  '  Merlinus 
Anglicus  Junior.'  In  his  usual  abrupt  and  dis- 
jointed style  he  gives  the  following  account  of 
his  publication  :  '  I  had  given,  one  day,  the  copy 
thereof  unto  the  then  Mr.  [afterwards  Sir  Bui- 
strode]  Whitlocke,  who  by  accident  was  reading 
thereof  in  the  House  of  Commons.  Ere  the  Speaker 
took  the  chair,  one  looked  upon  it,  and  so  did  many, 
and  got  copies  thereof;  which,  when  I  heard,  I 
applied  myself  to  John  Booker  to  license  it,  for  then 
he  was  licenser  of  all  mathematical  books.  ...  He 
wondered  at  the  book,  make  many  impertinent  obli- 
terations, formed  many  objections,  swore  it  was  not 


CHAP.   V.]     LAST  OF  THE  ENGLISH  MAGICIANS.  143 

possible  to  distinguish  betwixt  King  and  Parliament 
[0  shrewd  John  Booker  !]  ;  at  last  licensed  it  accord- 
ing to  his  own  fancy.  I  delivered  it  unto  the  printer, 
who  being  an  arch  Presbyterian,  had  five  of  the 
ministry  to  inspect  it,  who  could  make  nothing  of  it, 
but  said  that  it  might  be  printed,  for  in  that  I 
meddled  not  with  their  Dagon.  The  first  impression 
was  sold  in  less  than  one  week.  When  I  presented 
some  [copies]  to  the  members  of  Parliament,  I  com- 
plained of  John  Booker,  the  licenser,  who  had  defaced 
my  book  ;  they  gave  me  order  forthwith  to  reprint  it 
as  I  would,  and  let  me  know  if  any  durst  resist  me 
in  the  reprinting  or  adding  what  I  thought  fit  :  so 
the  second  time  it  came  forth  as  I  would  have  it.' 

In  June,  1644,  Lilly  published  his  '  Supernatural 
Sight,'  and  also  '  The  White  King's  Prophecy,'  of 
which,  in  three  days,  eighteen  hundred  copies  were 
sold.  He  issued  the  second  volume  of  his  '  Pro- 
phetical Merlin,'  in  which  he  made  use  of  the  King's 
nativity,  and  discovering  that  his  ascendant  was 
approaching  to  the  quadrature  of  Mars  about  June, 
1645,  delivered  himself  of  this  oracular  utterance, 
as  ambiguous  as  any  that  every  fell  from  the  lips  of 
the  Pythian  priestess  : 

'  If  now  we  fight,  a  victory  stealeth  upon  us — ' 

which  he  afterwards  boasted  to  be  a  clear  prediction  of 
the  defeat  of  Charles  I.  at  Naseby,  and,  of  course,  would 
equally  well  have  served  to  have  explained  a  royal 
victory.  Whitlocke,  in  his  '  Memorials  of  Affairs  in 
his  own  Times/  states  that  he  met  the  astrologer  in 


144  WITCH,  WARLOCK,  AND  MAGICIAN.        [BOOK  I. 

the  spring  of  1645,  and  jestingly  asking  him  what 
events  were  likely  to  take  place,  Lilly  repeated  this 
prophecy  of  a  victory.  He  remarks  that  in  1648 
some  of  Lilly's  prognostications  '  fell  out  very 
strangely,  particularly  as  to  the  King's  fall  from  his 
horse  about  this  time/  But  it  would  have  been 
strange  if  a  man  so  well  informed  of  public  affairs, 
and  so  shrewd,  as  William  Lilly,  had  never  been 
right  in  his  forecasts.  And  a  lucky  coincidence  will 
set  an  astrologer  up  in  credit  for  a  long  time,  his 
numerous  failures  being  forgotten. 

In  this  same  memorable  and  eventful  year  he  pub- 
lished his  '  Starry  Messenger,'  with  an  interpretation 
of  three  mock  suns,  or  parhelia,  which  had  been 
seen  in  London  on  the  29th  of  May,  1644,  King 
Charles  II. 's  birthday.  Complaint  was  immediately 
made  to  the  Parliamentary  Committee  of  Examina- 
tion that  it  contained  treasonable  and  scandalous 
matter.  Lilly  was  summoned  before  the  Committee, 
but  several  of  his  friends  were  upon  it,  and  voted  the 
charges  against  him  frivolous — as,  indeed,  they  were — 
so  that  he  met  with  his  usual  good  fortune,  and  came 
off  with  flying  colours. 

All  the  English  astrologers  of  the  old  school  seem 
to  have  been  startled  and  confounded  by  the  inno- 
vations of  this  dashing  young  magician,  with  his 
yearly  almanacks  and  political  predictions  and  self- 
advertisement,  especially  a  certain  Mr.  William 
Hodges,  who  lived  near  Wolverhampton,  and  can- 
didly confessed  that  Lilly  did  more  by  astrology  than 
he  himself  could  do  by  the  crystal,  though  he  under- 


CHAP.   V.]      LAST  OF  THE  ENGLISH  MAGICIANS.  145 

stood  its  use  as  well  as  any  man  in  England.  Though 
a  strong  royalist,  he  could  never  strike  out  any  good 
fortune  for  the  King's  party — the  stars  in  their 
courses  fought  against  Charles  Stuart.  The  angels 
whom  he  interviewed  by  means  of  the  crystal  were 
Raphael,  Gabriel,  and  Ariel ;  but  his  life  was  wanting 
in  the  purity  and  holiness  which  ought  to  have  been 
conspicuous  in  a  man  who  was  favoured  by  communi- 
cations from  such  high  celestial  sources. 

A  proof  of  his  skill  is  related  by  Lilly  on  the 
authority  of  Lilly's  partner,  John  Scott. 

Scott  had  some  knowledge  of  surgery  and  physic  ; 
so  had  Will  Hodges,  who  had  at  one  time  been  a 
schoolmaster.  Having  some  business  at  Wolver- 
hampton,  Scott  stayed  for  a  few  weeks  with  Hodges, 
and  assisted  him  in  dressing  wounds,  letting  blood, 
and  other  chirurgical  matters.  When  on  the  point 
of  returning  to  London,  he  asked  Hodges  to  show 
him  the  face  and  figure  of  the  woman  he  should 
marry.  Hodges  carried  him  into  a  "field  near  his 
house,  pulled  out  his  crystal,  bade  Scott  set  his  foot 
against  his,  and,  after  a  pause,  desired  him  to  look 
into  the  crystal,  and  describe  what  he  saw  there. 

'  I  see,'  saith  Scott,  '  a  ruddy -complexioried  wench, 
in  a  red  waistcoat,  drawing  a  can  of  beer.' 

1  She  will  be  your  wife/  cried  Hodges. 

t  You  are  mistaken,  sir,'  rejoined  Scott.  'So  soon 
as  I  come  to  London,  I  am  engaged  to  marry  a  tall 
gentlewoman  in  the  Old  Bailey.' 

'  You  will  marry  the  red  gentlewoman,'  replied 
Hodges,  with  an  air  of  imperturbable  assurance. 

10 


146  WITCH,  WARLOCK,  AND  MAGICIAN.        [BOOK  I. 

On  returning  to  London,  Scott,  to  his  great 
astonishment,  found  that  his  tall  gentlewoman  had 
jilted  him,  and  taken  to  herself  another  husband. 
Two  years  afterwards,  in  the  course  of  a  Kentish 
journey,  he  refreshed  himself  at  an  inn  in  Canter- 
bury ;  fell  in  love  with  its  ruddy-complexioned  bar- 
maid ;  and,  when  he  married  her,  remembered  her 
red  waistcoat,  her  avocation,  and  Mr.  Hodges  '  his 
crystal/ 

An  amusing  story  is  told  of  this  man  Hodges. 

A  neighbour  of  his,  who  had  lost  his  horse,  re- 
covered the  animal  by  acting  upon  the  astrologer's 
advice.  Some  years  afterwards  he  unluckily  conceived 
the  idea  of  playing  upon  the  wise  man  a  practical  joke, 
and  obtained  the  co-operation  of  one  of  his  friends. 
He  had  certainly  recovered  his  horse,  he  said,  in  the 
way  Hodges  had  shown  him,  but  it  was  purely  a 
chance,  and  would  not  happen  again.  '  So  come,  let 
us  play  him  a  trick.  I  will  leave  some  boy  or  other 
at  the  town's  end  with  my  horse,  and  we  will  then 
call  on  Hodges  and  put  him  to  the  test.' 

This  was  done,  and  Hodges  said  it  was  true  the 
horse  was  lost,  and  would  never  be  recovered. 

'  I  thought  what  fine  skill  you  had/  laughed  the 
gentleman ;  my  horse  is  walking  in  a  lane  at  the 
town's  end.' 

Whereupon  Hodges,  with  an  oath,  as  was  his  evil 
habit,  asserted  that  the  horse  was  gone,  and  that  his 
owner  would  never  see  him  again.  Ridiculing  the 
wise  man  without  mercy,  the  gentleman  departed, 
and  hastened  to  the  town's  end,  and  there,  at  the 


CHAP.   V.]      LAST  OF  THE  ENGLISH  MAGICIANS.  147 

appointed  place,  the  boy  lay  stretched  upon  the 
ground,  fast  asleep,  with  the  bridle  round  his  arm, 
but  the  horse  was  gone  ! 

Back  to  Hodges  hurried  the  chap-fallen  squire, 
ashamed  of  his  incredulity,  and  eagerly  seeking 
assistance.  But  no  ;  the  conjurer  swore  freely — '  Be 
gone — be  gone  about  your  business  ;  go  and  look  for 
your  horse.'  He  went  and  he  looked,  east  and  west, 
and  north  and  south,  but  his  horse  saw  never  more. 

Let  us  next  hear  what  Lilly  has  to  tell  us  of 
Dr.  tapper,  the  parson  of  Great  Lindford,  in  Buck- 
inghamshire, the  advowson  of  which  parish  belonged 
to  him.  He  sprang  from  a  good  old  stock,  according 
to  the  witness  of  King  James  himself.  For  when  his 
brother,  Eobert  Napper,  an  opulent  Turkey  merchant, 
was  to  be  made  a  baronet  in  James's  reign,  some 
dispute  arose  whether  he  could  prove  himself  a  gen- 
tleman for  three  or  more  descents.  'By  my  soul,' 
exclaimed  the  King,  '  I  will  certify  for  tapper,  that 
he  is  of  above  three  hundred  years'  standing  in  his 
family  ;  all  of  them,  by  my  soul,  gentlemen  !'  The 
parson  was  legitimately  arid  truly  master  of  arts  ; 
his  claim  to  the  title  of  doctor,  however,  seems  to 
have  been  dubious.  Miscarrying  one  day  in  the  pulpit, 
he  never  after  ventured  into  it,  but  all  his  lifetime 
kept  in  his  house  some  excellent  scholar  to  officiate 
for  him,  allowing  him  a  good  salary.  Lilly  speaks 
highly  of  his  sanctity  of  life  and  knowledge  of  medi- 
cine, and  avers  that  he  cured  the  falling  sickness  by 
constellated  rings,  and  other  diseases  by  amulets. 

10—2 


148  WITCH,  WARLOCK,  AND  MAGICIAN.        [BOOK  I. 

The  parents  of  a  maid  who  suffered  severely  from 
the  falling  sickness  applied  to  him,  on  one  occasion, 
for  a  cure.  He  fashioned  for  her  a  constellated  ring, 
upon  wearing  of  which  she  completely  recovered. 
Her  parents  chanced  to  make  known  the  cure  to  some 
scrupulous  divines,  who  immediately  protested  that 
it  was  done  by  enchantment.  '  Cast  away  the  ring/ 
they  said  ;  '  it's  diabolical !  God  cannot  bless  you,  if 
you  do  not  cast  it  away.'  The  ring  was  thrown  into 
a  well,  and  the  maid  was  again  afflicted  with  her 
epilepsy,  enduring  the  old  pain  and  misery  for  a 
weary  time.  At  last  the  parents  caused  the  well  to 
be  emptied,  and  regained  the  ring,  which  the  maid 
again  made  use  of,  and  recovered  from  her  fits.  Thus 
things  went  on  for  a  year  or  two,  until  the  Puritan 
divines,  hearing  that  she  had  resumed  the  ring,  in- 
sisted with  her  parents  until  they  threw  the  ring  away 
altogether  ;  whereupon  the  fits  returned  with  such 
violence  that  they  betook  themselves  to  the  doctor,  told 
their  story,  acknowledged  their  fault,  and  once  more 
besought  his  assistance.  But  he  could  not  be  per- 
suaded to  render  it,  observing  that  those  who  despised 
God's  mercies  were  not  capable  or  not  worthy  of 
enjoying  them. 

We  do  not  dismiss  this  story  as  entirely  apocryphal, 
knowing  that,  in  the  cure  or  mitigation  of  nervous 
diseases,  the  imagination  exercises  a  wonderful  in- 
fluence. There  are  well-authenticated  instances  of 
4  faith  healing '  not  a  whit  less  extraordinary  than 
this  case  described  by  Lilly  of  the  maiden  and  the 
ring.  It  would  be  trivial,  perhaps,  to  hint  that  a 


CHAP.   V.]      LAST  OF  THE  ENGLISH  MAGICIANS.  149 

good   many  maidens   have   been  cured  of  some,   at 
least,  of  their  ailments  by  a  ring. 

In  1646  Lilly  printed  a  collection  of  prophecies, 
with  the  explanation  and  verification  of  '  Aquila  ;  or, 
The  White  King's  Prophecy/  as  also  the  nativities 
of  Archbishop  Laud  and  the  Earl  of  Strafford,  and  a 
learned  speech,  which  the  latter  intended  to  have 
spoken  on  the  scaffold.  In  the  following  year  he 
completed  his  '  Introduction  unto  Astrology/  or 
'  Christian  Astrology/  and  was  summoned,  along 
with  John  Booker,  to  the  head-quarters  of  Fairfax, 
at  Windsor.  They  were  conveyed  thither  in  great 
pomp  and  circumstance,  with  a  coach  and  four 
horses,  welcomed  in  hearty  fashion,  and  feasted  in 
a  garden  where  General  Fairfax  lodged.  In  the 
course  of  their  interview  with  the  general  he  said  to 
them  : 

*  That  God  had  blessed  the  army  with  many  signal  victories, 
and  yet  their  work  was  not  finished.  He  hoped  God  would  go 
along  with  them  until  His  work  was  done.  They  sought  not 
themselves,  but  the  welfare  and  tranquillity  of  the  good  people 
and  whole  nation ;  and,  for  that  end,  were  resolved  to  sacrifice 
both  their  lives  and  their  own  fortunes.  As  for  the  art  that  Lilly 
and  Booker  studied,  he  hoped  it  was  lawful  and  agreeable  to 
God's  Word  :  he  himself  understood  it  not,  but  doubted  not  they 
both  feared  God,  and  therefore  had  a  good  opinion  of  them  both.' 

Lilly  replied  : 

'  My  lord,  I  am  glad  to  see  you  here  at  this  time.  Certainly, 
both  the  people  of  God,  and  all  others  of  this  nation,  are  very 
sensible  of  God's  mercy,  love,  and  favour  unto  them,  in  directing 
the  Parliament  to  nominate  and  elect  you  General  of  their  armies, 
a  person  so  religious,  so  valiant. 


150  WITCH,  WARLOCK,  AND  MAGICIAN.        [BOOK  I. 

'  The  several  unexpected  victories  obtained  under  your  Excel- 
lency's conduct  will  eternize  the  same  unto  all  posterity. 

'We  are  confident  of  God's  going  along  with  you  and  your 
army  until  the  great  work,  for  which  He  ordained  you  both,  is 
fully  perfected,  which  we  hope  will  be  the  conquering  and  sub- 
version of  your  and  the  Parliament's  enemies ;  and  then  a  quiet 
settlement  and  firm  peace  over  all  the  nation  unto  God's  glory, 
and  full  satisfaction  of  tender  consciences. 

t  Sir,  as  for  ourselves,  we  trust  in  God ;  and,  as  Christians,  we 
believe  in  Him.  We  do  not  study  any  art  but  what  is  lawful 
and  consonant  to  the  Scriptures,  Fathers,  and  antiquity,  which 
we  humbly  desire  you  to  believe.' 

They  afterwards  paid  a  visit  to  Hugh  Peters,  the 
famous  Puritan  ecclesiastic,  who  had  lodgings  in  the 
Castle.  They  found  him  reading  '  an  idle  pamphlet,' 
which  he  had  received  from  London  that  morning. 
1  Lilly,  thou  art  herein,'  he  exclaimed.  4  Are  not  you 
there  also  ?'  '  Yes,  that  I  am,'  he  answered. 

The  stanza  relating  to  Lilly  ran  as  follows  : 

'  From  th'  oracles  of  the  Sibyls  so  silly, 
The  curst  predictions  of  William  Lilly, 
And  Dr.  Sibbald's  Shoe-Lane  Philly, 

Good  Lord,  deliver  me.' 

After  much  conference  with  Hugh  Peters,  and 
some  private  discourse  betwixt  the  two  c  not  to  be 
divulged/  they  parted,  and  Master  Lilly  returned  to 
London. 

In  1647  he  published  i  The  World's  Catastrophe/ 
1  The  Prophecies  of  Ambrose  Merlin '  (both  or  which 
were  translated  by  Elias  Ashmole),  and  *  Trithemius 
of  the  Government  of  the  World,  by  the  Presiding 
Angels  ' — all  three  tracts  in  one  volume. 

Notwithstanding  his  services  to  the  Parliamentary 
cause,  Lilly  secretly  retained  a  strong  attachment 


CHAP.  V.]     LAST  OF  THE  ENGLISH  MAGICIANS.  151 

towards  Charles  L,  and  he  was  consulted  by  Mrs. 
Whorwood,  a  lady  who  enjoyed  the  royal  confidence, 
as  to  the  best  place  for  the  concealment  of  the  King, 
when  he  escaped  from  Hampton  Court.  After  the 
usual  sham  of  'erecting  a  figure'  had  been  gone 
through,  Lilly  advised  that  a  safe  asylum  might  be 
found  in  Essex,  about  twenty  miles  from  London. 
1  She  liked  my  judgment  very  well/  he  says,  and 
being  herself  of  sharp  j  udgment,  remembered  a  place 
in  Essex  about  that  distance,  where  was  an  excellent 
house,  and  all  conveniences  for  his  reception.  But, 
either  guided  by  an  irresistible  destiny,  or  misled  by 
Ashburnham,  whose  good  faith  has  been  sometimes 
doubted,  he  went  away  in  the  night-time  westward, 
and  surrendered  himself  to  Colonel  Hammond,  in  the 
Isle  of  Wight. 

With  another  unfortunate  episode  in  the  King's 
later  career,  Lilly  was  also  connected.  During  the 
King's  confinement  at  Carisbrooke  the  Kentishmen, 
in  considerable  numbers,  rose  in  arms,  and  joined 
with  Lord  Goring  ;  at  the  same  time  many  of  the 
best  ships  revolted,  and  a  movement  on  behalf  of  the 
King  was  begun  among  the  citizens  of  London. 
1  His  Majesty  then  laid  his  design  to  escape  out  of 
prison  by  sawing  the  iron  bar  of  his  chamber 
window  ;  a  small  ship  was  provided,  and  anchored 
not  far  from  the  Castle,  to  bring  him  into  Sussex ; 
horses  were  provided  ready  to  carry  him  through 
Sussex  into  Kent,  so  that  he  might  be  at  the  head  of 
the  army  in  Kent,  and  from  thence  to  march  imme- 
diately to  London,  where  thousands  then  would  have 


152  WITCH,  WARLOCK,  AND  MAGICIAN.        [BOOK  I. 

armed  for  him.'  Lilly  was  brought  acquainted  with 
the  plot,  and  employed  a  locksmith  in  Bow  Lane  to 
make  a  saw  for  cutting  asunder  the  iron  bar,  and 
also  procured  a  supply  of  aqua  fortis.  But,  as  every- 
body knows,  the  King  was  unable  to  force  his  body 
through  the  narrow  casement,  even  after  the  removal 
of  the  bar,  and  the  plot  failed. 

When  the  Parliament  sent  Commissioners  into  the 
Island  to  negotiate  with  Charles  the  terms  of  a  con- 
cordat, of  whom  Lord  Saye  was  one,  Lady  Whorwood 
again  sought  Lilly's  assistance  and  advice.  After 
perusing  his  '  figure/  he  told  her  the  Commissioners 
wTould  arrive  in  the  Island  on  such  a  date  ;  elected  a 
day  and  hour  when  the  King  would  receive  the  Com- 
missioners and  their  propositions  ;  and  as  soon  as 
these  were  read,  advised  the  King  to  sign  them,  and  in 
all  haste  to  accompany  the  Commissioners  to  London. 
The  army  being  then  far  removed  from  the  capital, 
and  the  citizens  stoutly  enraged  against  the  Parlia- 
mentary leaders,  Charles  promised  he  would  do  so. 
But,  unfortunately,  he  allowed  Lord  Saye  to  dis- 
suade him  from  signing  the  propositions,  on  the 
assurance  that  he  had  a  powerful  party  both  in  the 
House  of  Lords  and  the  House  of  Commons,  who 
would  see  that  he  obtained  more  favourable  condi- 
tions. Thus  was  lost  almost  his  last  chance  of 
retaining  his  crown,  and  baffling  the  designs  of  his 
enemies. 

Whilst  the  King,  in  his  last  days,  was  at  Windsor 
Castle,  on  one  occasion,  when  he  was  taking  the  air 
upon  the  leads,  he  looked  through  Captain  Wharton's 


CHAP.  V.J     LAST  OF  THE  ENGLISH  MAGICIANS.  153 

'Almanack.'  'My  book/  saith  he,  'speaks  well  as 
to  the  weather/  A  Master  William  Allen,  who  was 
standing  by,  inquired,  'What  saith  his  antagonist, 
Mr.  Lilly  ?'  '  I  do  not  care  for  Lilly,'  remarked  his 
Majesty,  'he  has  always  been  against  me/  infusing 
some  bitterness  into  his  expressions.  '  Sir/  observed 
Allen,  'the  man  is  an  honest  man,  and  writes  but 
what  his  art  informs  him/  '  I  believe  it/  said  his 
Majesty,  '  and  that  Lilly  understands  astrology  as 
well  as  any  man  in  Europe.' 

In  1648  the  Council  of  State  acknowledged  Lilly's 
services  with  a  grant  of  £50,  and  a  pension  of  £100 
a  year,  which,  however,  he  received  for  two  years 
only. 

In  the  following  January,  while  the  King  lay  at 
St.  James's  House,  Lilly  began  his  observations,  he 
tells  us,  in  the  following  oracular  fashion : 

'  I  am  serious,  I  beg  and  expect  justice ;  either  fear 
or  shame  begins  to  question  offenders. 

'  The  lofty  cedars  begin  to  divine  a  thundering 
hurricane  is  at  hand  ;  God  elevates  man  contempt- 
ible. 

4  Our  demigods  are  sensible,  we  begin  to  dislike 
their  actions  very  much  in  London  •  more  in  the 
country. 

'  Blessed  be  God,  who  encourages  His  servants, 
makes  them  valiant,  and  of  undaunted  spirit  to  go  on 
with  His  decrees  :  upon  a  sudden,  great  expectations 
arise,  and  men  generally  believe  a  quiet  and  calm 
time  draws  nigh.' 


154  WITCH,  WARLOCK,  AND  MAGICIAN.        [BOOK  I. 

Our  garrulous  and  egotistical  conjurer,  who  seems 
really  to  have  believed  that  he  exercised  a  considerable 
influence  upon  the  course  of  events,  though  his  posi- 
tion was  no  more  important  than  that  of  the  fly  upon 
the  wheel,  evidently  wished  to  connect  these  com- 
monplaces with  the  execution  of  Charles  I.  : 

1  In  Christmas  holidays,'  he  writes,  '  the  Lord  Gray 
of  Groby,  and  Hugh  Peters,  sent  for  me  to  Somerset- 
House,  with  directions  to  bring  them  two  of  my 
almanacks.  I  did  so.  Peters  and  he  read  January's 
observations.  "  If  we  are  not  fools  and  knaves," 
saith  he,  "  we  shall  do  justice."  Then  they  whispered. 
/  understood  not  their  meaning  until  his  Majesty  was 
beheaded.  They  applied  what  I  wrote  of  justice  to 
be  understood  of  his  Majesty,  which  was  contrary  to 
my  intention ;  for  Jupiter,  the  first  day  of  January, 
became  direct;  and  Libra  is  a  sign  signifying  justice. 
I  implored  for  justice  generally  upon  such  as  had 
cheated  in  their  places,  being  treasurers  and  such-like 
officers.  I  had  not  then  heard  the  least  intimation  of 
bringing  the  King  unto  trial,  and  yet  the  first  day 
thereof  I  was  casually  there,  it  being  upon  a  Saturday. 
For  going  to  Westminster  every  Saturday  in  the 
afternoon,  in  these  times,  at  Whitehall  I  casually  met 
Peters.  "  Come,  Lilly,  wilt  thou  go  hear  the  King 
tried?"  "When?"  said  I.  "Now — just  now;  go 
with  me."  I  did  so,  and  was  permitted  by  the  guard 
of  soldiers  to  pass  up  to  the  King's  Bench.  Within 
one  quarter  of  an  hour  came  the  judges  ;  presently 
his  Majesty,  who  spoke  excellently  well,  and  majes- 
tically, without  impediment  in  the  least  when  he 


CHAP.  V.]     LAST  OF  THE  ENGLISH  MAGICIANS.  155 

spoke.  I  saw  the  silver  top  of  his  staff  unexpectedly 
fall  to  the  ground,  which  was  took  up  by  Mr.  Rush- 
worth  ;  and  then  I  heard  Bradshaw,  the  judge,  say  to 
his  Majesty :  "  Sir,  instead  of  answering  the  Court, 
you  interrogate  their  power,  which  becomes  not  one 
in  your  condition.''  These  words  pierced  my  heart 
and  soul,  to  hear  a  subject  thus  audaciously  to  re- 
prehend his  Sovereign,  who  ever  and  anon  replied  with 
great  magnanimity  and  prudence.' 

Lilly  tells  us  that  during  the  siege  of  Colchester  he 
and  his  fellow-astrologer,  Booker,  were  sent  for,  to 
encourage  the  soldiers  by  their  vaticinations,  and  in 
this  they  succeeded,  as  they  assured  them  the  town 
would  soon  be  surrendered — which  was  actually  the 
case.  Our  prophet,  however,  if  he  could  have  ob- 
tained leave  to  enter  the  town,  would  have  carried  all 
his  sympathies,  and  all  his  knowledge  of  the  condi- 
tion of  affairs  in  the  Parliament's  army,  to  Sir  Charles 
Lucas,  the  Royalist  Governor.  He  had  a  narrow 
escape  with  his  life  during  his  sojourn  in  the  camp  of 
the  besiegers.  A  couple  of  guns  had  been  placed  so 
as  to  command  St.  Mary's  Church,  and  had  done 
great  injury  to  it.  One  afternoon  he  was  standing  in 
the  redoubt  and  talking  with  the  cannoneer,  when 
the  latter  cried  out  for  everybody  to  look  to  himself, 
as  he  could  see  through  his  glass  that  there  was  a 
piece  in  the  Castle  loaded  and  directed  against  his 
work,  and  ready  to  be  discharged.  Lilly  ran  in  hot 
haste  under  an  old  ash-tree,  and  immediately  the 
cannon-shot  came  hissing  over  their  heads.  '  No 
danger  now/  said  the  gunner,  '  but  begone,  for  there 


156  WITCH,  WARLOCK,  AND  MAGICIAN.        [BOOK  I. 

are  five  more  loading !'  And  so  it  was.  Two 
hours  later  those  cannon  were  fired,  and  unluckily 
killed  the  cannoneer  who  had  given  Lilly  a  timely 
warning. 

The  practice  of  astrology  must  have  been  exceed- 
ingly lucrative,  for  Lilly  is  known  to  have  acquired  a 
considerable  fortune.  In  1651  he  expended  £1,030  in 
the  purchase  of  fee-farm  rents,  equal  in  value  to  £120 
per  annum.  And  in  the  following  year  he  bought 
his  house  at  Hersham,  with  some  lands  and  buildings, 
for  £950.  In  the  same  year  he  published  his  '  Annus 
Tenebrosus/  a  title  which  he  chose  not  '  because  of  the 
great  obscurity  of  the  solar  eclipse/  but  in  allusion  to 
'  those  underhand  and  clandestine  counsels  held  in 
England  by  the  soldiery,  of  which  he  would  never, 
except  in  generals,  give  information  to  any  Parliament 
man/  Unfortunately,  Lilly's  knowledge  was  always 
embodied  '  in  generals/  and  the  misty  vagueness  of 
his  vaticinations  renders  it  impossible  for  the  reader 
to  pin  them  down  to  any  definite  meaning.  You 
may  apply  them  to  all  events — or  to  none.  Their 
elastic  indications  of  things  good  and  evil  may  be 
made  to  suit  the  events  of  the  nineteenth  century 
almost  as  well  as  those  of  the  seventeenth. 

Many  characters  Mr.  William  Lilly  must  be  owned 
to  have  represented  with  great  success.  But  that  all- 
essential  one — if  we  desire  to  secure  the  confidence  of 
our  contemporaries,  and  the  respect  of  posterity — of 
an  honest  man,  I  fear  he  was  never  able  to  personate 
successfully.  Of  the  craft  and  cunning  he  could  at 
times  display  he  records  a  striking  illustration— 


CHAP.  V.]     LAST  OF  THE  ENGLISH  MAGICIANS.  157 

evidently  with  entire  satisfaction  to  himself,  and 
apparently  never  suspecting  that  it  might  not  be  so 
favourably  regarded  by  others,  and  especially  by 
those  plain,  commonplace  people  who  make  no  pre- 
tensions to  hermetic  learning  or  occult  knowledge, 
but  have  certain  unsophisticated  ideas  as  to  the  laws 
of  morality  and  fair  dealing. 

In  his  1651  '  Almanack '  he  asserted  that  the  Par- 
liament stood  upon  tottering  foundations,  and  that 
the  soldiery  and  commonalty  would  combine  against 
it — a  conclusion  at  which  every  intelligent  onlooker 
must  by  that  time  have  arrived,  without  *  erecting  a 
figure '  or  consulting  the  starry  heavens. 

This  previous  attempt  at  forecasting  the  future  '  lay 
for  a  whole  week,'  says  its  author,  '  in  the  Parliament 
House,  much  criticised  by  the  Presbyterians  ;  one 
disliking  this  sentence,  another  that,  and  others  dis- 
liking the  whole.  In  the  end  a  motion  was  made 
that  it  should  be  examined  by  a  Committee  of  the 
House,  with  instructions  to  report  concerning  its 
errors. 

'  A  messenger  attached  me  by  a  warrant  from  that 
Committee.  I  had  private  notice  ere  the  messenger 
came,  and  hasted  unto  Mr.  Speaker  Lenthall,  ever  my 
friend.  He  was  exceeding  glad  to  see  me,  told  me 
what  was  done,  called  for  "  Anglicus,"  marked  the 
passages  which  tormented  the  Presbyterians  so  highly. 
I  presently  sent  for  Mr.  Warren,  the  printer,  an 
assured  cavalier,  obliterated  what  was  most  offensive, 
put  in  other  more  significant  words,  and  desired  only 
to  have  six  amended  against  next  morning,  which 


158  WITCH,  WARLOCK,  AND  MAGICIAN.        [BOOK  I. 

very  honestly  he  brought  me.  I  told  him  my  design 
was  to  deny  the  book  found  fault  with,  to  own  only 
the  six  books.  I  told  him  I  doubted  he  would  be 
examined.  "Hang  them!"  said  he;  "they  are  all 
rogues.  I'll  swear  myself  to  the  devil  ere  they  shall 
have  an  advantage  against  you,  by  my  oath." 

1  The  day  after,  I  appeared  before  the  Committee. 
At  first  they  showed  me  the  true  "  Anglicus,"  and 
asked  if  I  wrote  and  printed  it.' 

Lilly,  after  pretending  to  inspect  it,  denied  all 
knowledge  of  it,  asserting  that  it  must  have  been 
written  with  a  view  to  do  him  injury  by  some 
malicious  Presbyterian,  at  the  same  time  producing 
the  six  amended  copies,  to  the  great  surprise  and  per- 
plexity of  the  Committee.  The  majority,  however, 
were  inclined  to  send  him  to  prison,  and  some  had 
proposed  Newgate,  others  the  Gate  House,  when  one 
Brown,  of  Sussex,  who  had  been  influenced  to  favour 
Lilly,  remarked  that  neither  to  Newgate  nor  the  Gate 
House  were  the  Parliament  accustomed  to  send  their 
prisoners,  and  suggested  that  the  most  convenient 
and  legitimate  course  would  be  for  the  Sergeant-at- 
Arms  to  take  this  Mr.  Lilly  into  custody. 

'  Mr.  Strickland,  who  had  for  many  years  been  the 
Parliament's  ambassador  or  agent  in  Holland,  when 
he  saw  how  they  inclined,  spoke  thus : 

'  "  I  came  purposely  into  the  Committee  this  day 
to  see  the  man  who  is  so  famous  in  those  parts  where 
I  have  so  long  continued.  I  assure  you  his  name  is 
famous  over  all  Europe.  I  come  to  do  him  justice. 
A  book  is  produced  by  us,  and  said  to  be  his ;  he 


CHAP.   V.]     LAST  OF  THE  ENGLISH  MAGICIANS.  159 

denies  it ;  we  have  not  proved  it,  yet  will  commit 
him.  Truly  this  is  great  injustice.  It  is  likely  he 
will  write  next  year,  and  acquaint  the  whole  world 
with  our  injustice,  and  so  well  he  may.  It  is  my 
opinion,  first  to  prove  the  book  to  be  his  ere  he  be 
committed." 

i  Another  old  friend  of  mine  spoke  thus : 
i  "  You  do  not  know  the  many  services  this  man 
hath  done  for  the  Parliament  these  many  years,  or 
how  many  times,  in  our  greatest  distresses,  on  ap- 
plying unto  him,  he  hath  refreshed  our  languishing 
expectations  ;  he  never  failed  us  of  comfort  in  our 
most  unhappy  distresses.  I  assure  you  his  writings 
have  kept  up  the  spirits  both  of  the  soldiery,  the 
honest  people  of  this  nation,  and  many  of  us  Parlia- 
ment men  ;  and  at  last,  for  a  slip  of  his  pen  (if  it  were 
his),  to  be  thus  violent  against  him,  I  must  tell  you, 
I  fear  the  consequence  urged  out  of  the  book  will 
prove  effectually  true.  It  is  my  counsel  to  admonish 
him  hereafter  to  be  more  wary,  and  for  the  present  to 
dismiss  him." 

1  Notwithstanding  anything  that  was  spoken  on 
my  behalf,  I  was  ordered  to  stand  committed  to  the 
Sergeant-at-Arms.  The  messenger  attached  my 
person  said  I  was  his  prisoner.  As  he  was  carrying 
me  away,  he  was  called  to  bring  me  again.  Oliver 
Cromwell,  Lieutenant-General  of  the  army,  having 
never  seen  me,  caused  me  to  be  produced  again,  when 
he  steadfastly  beheld  me  for  a  good  space,  and  then  I 
went  with  the  messenger;  but  instantly  a  young 
clerk  of  that  Committee  asks  the  messenger  what  he 


160  WITCH,  WARLOCK,  AND  MAGICIAN.        [BOOK  I. 

did  with  me.  Where  is  the  warrant?  Until  that  is 
signed  you  cannot  seize  Mr.  Lilly,  or  shall  [not]. 
Will  you  have  an  action  of  false  imprisonment  against 
you?  So  I  escaped  that  night,  but  next  day  stayed 
the  warrant.  That  night  Oliver  Cromwell  went  to 

Mr.  R .  rriy  friend,  and  said :  "  What,  never  a  man 

to  take  Lilly's  cause  in  hand  but  yourself  ?  None  to 
take  his  part  but  you?  He  shall  not  be  long  there." 
Hugh  Peters  spoke  much  in  my  behalf  to  the  Com- 
mittee, but  they  were  resolved  to  lodge  me  in  the 
Sergeant's  custody.  One  Millington,  a  drunken 
member,  was  much  my  enemy,  and  so  was  Cawley 
and  Chichester,  a  deformed  fellow,  unto  whom  I  had 
done  several  courtesies. 

'  First  thirteen  days  I  was  a  prisoner,  and  though 
every  day  of  the  Committee's  sitting  I  had  a  petition 
to  deliver,  yet  so  many  churlish  Presbyterians  still 
appeared  I  could  not  get  it  accepted.  The  last  day 
of  the  thirteen,  Mr.  Joseph  Ash  was  made  chairman, 
unto  whom  my  cause  being  related,  he  took  my  peti- 
tion, and  said  I  should  be  bailed  in  despite  of  them 
all,  but  desired  I  would  procure  as  many  friends  as  I 
could  to  be  there.  Sir  Arthur  Haselrig  and  Major 
Galloway,  a  person  of  excellent  parts,  appeared  for  me, 
and  many  more  of  my  old  friends  came  in.  After  two 
whole  hours'  arguing  of  my  cause  by  Sir  Arthur  and 
Major  Galloway,  and  other  friends,  the  matter  came 
to  this  point :  I  should  be  bailed,  and  a  Committee 
nominated  to  examine  the  printer.  The  order  of  the 
Committee  being  brought  afterwards  to  him  who 
should  be  Chairman,  he  sent  me  word,  do  what  I 


CHAP.   V.]     LAST  OF  THE  ENGLISH  MAGICIANS.  161 

would,  he  would  see  all  the  knaves  hanged,  or  he 
would  examine  the  printer.  This  is  the  truth  of  the 
story. ' 

Lilly's  biographer,  however  anxious  he  may  be  to 
imitate  biographers  generally,  and  whitewash  his 
hero,  feels  that  in  this  episode  of  his  life  the  great 
seer  fell  miserably  below  the  heroic  standard,  and 
was  guilty  of  pusillanimous  as  well  as  unveracious 
and  dishonourable  conduct.  Yet  Lilly  is  evidently 
unaware  of  the  unfavourable  light  in  which  he  has 
shown  himself,  and  ambles  along  in  an  easy  and 
well- satisfied  mood,  as  if  to  the  sound  of  universal 
applause. 

On  February  26,  1654,  Lilly  lost  his  second  wife, 
and  I  regret  to  say  he  seems  to  have  borne  the  loss 
with  astonishing  equanimity.  On  April  20  Crom- 
well expelled  from  the  House  our  astrologer's  great 
enemies,  the  Parliament  men,  and  thereby  won  his 
most  cordial  applause.  He  breaks  out,  indeed,  into  a 
burst  of  devotional  praise — Gloria  Patri — as  if  for 
some  special  and  never-to-be-forgotten  mercy.  A 
German  physician,  then  resident  in  London,  sent  to 
him  the  following  epigram : 

Strophe  Alcaica:  G-eneroso  Domino  Gulielmo  Lillio  Astrologo,  de 
dissoluto  super  Parliamento  : 

'  Quod  calculasti  Sydere  prsevio, 
Miles  peregit  numine  conscio  ; 
Gentis  videmus  nunc  Senatum 
Marti  togaque  gravi  leviatum.' 

His  widower's  weeds,  if  he  ever  wore  them,  he 
soon  discarded,  marrying  his  third  wife  in  October, 

11 


162  WITCH,  WARLOCK,  AND  MAGICIAN.        [BOOK  I. 

eight  months  after  the  decease  of  his  second.  This, 
his  latest  partner  and  helpmate,  was  signified  in  his 
nativity,  he  says,  by  Jupiter  in  Libra,  which  seems 
to  have  been  a  great  comfort  to  him,  and  perhaps  to 
his  wife  also.  *  Jupiter  in  Libra '  sounds  as  well, 
indeed,  as  'that  blessed  word,  Mesopotamia.' 

In  reference  to  the  restoration  of  Charles  II.,  in 
1660,  Lilly  unearths  an  old  prophecy  attributed  to 
Ambrose  Merlin,  and  written,  he  says,  990  years 
before. 

'  He  calls  King  James  the  Lion  of  Righteousness, 
and  saith,  when  he  died,  or  was  dead,  there  would 
reign  a  noble  White  King ;  this  was  Charles  I. 
The  prophet  discovers  all  his  troubles,  his  flying 
up  and  down,  his  imprisonment,  his  death,  and 
calls  him  Aquila.  What  concerns  Charles  II.  is,' 
says  Lilly,  '  the  subject  of  our  discourse  ;  in  the  Latin 
copy  it  is  thus  : 

'  Deinde  ab  Austro  veniet  cum  Sole  super  ligneos  equos, 
et super  spumantem  inundationem  maris,  Pullus  Aquilce 
navigans  in  Britanniam. 

'  Et  applicans  statim  tune  altam  domum  Aquilce 
sitiens,  et  cito  aliam  sitiet. 

'  Deinde  Pullus  Aquilce  nidificabit  in  summa  rupe 
totius  Britannice :  necjuvenis  occidet,  nee  adsenem  vivet.1 

This,  in  an  old  copy,  is  Englished  thus  : 

( After  then  shall  come  through  the  south  with 
the  sun,  on  horse  of  tree,  and  upon  all  waves  of  the 
sea,  the  Chicken  of  the  Eagle,  sailing  into  Britain, 
and  arriving  anon  to  the  house  of  the  Eagle,  he  shall 
show  fellowship  to  these  beasts. 


CHAP.  V.]     LAST  OF  THE  ENGLISH  MAGICIANS.  163 

'  After,  the  Chicken  of  the  Eagle  shall  nestle  in  the 
highest  rock  of  all  Britain  :  nay,  he  shall  nought  be 
slain  young  ;  nay,  he  nought  come  old/ 

Master  William  Lilly  then  supplies  an  explana- 
tion, or,  as  he  calls  it,  a  verification,  of  these  vener- 
able predictions.  We  shall  give  it  in  his  own 
words  : 

i  His  Majesty  being  in  the  Low  Countries  when 
the  Lord -General  had  restored  the  secluded  members, 
the  Parliament  sent  part  of  the  royal  navy  to  bring 
him  for  England,  which  they  did  in  May,  1660. 
Holland  is  east  from  England,  so  he  came  with  the 
sun  ;  but  he  landed  at  Dover,  a  port  in  the  south 
part  of  England.  Wooden  horses  are  the  English 
ships. 

'  Tune  nidificabit  in  summo  rupium. 

'  The  Lord- General,  and  most  of  the  gentry  in 
England,  met  him  in  Kent,  and  brought  him  unto 
London,  then  to  White-hall. 

'  Here,  by  the  highest  Rooch  (some  write  Rock) 
is  intended  London,  being  the  metropolis  of  all 
England. 

4  Since  which  time,  unto  this  very  day,  I  write  this 
story,  he  hath  reigned  in  England,  and  long  may  he 
do  hereafter.'  (Written  on  December  20,  1667.) 

Lilly  quotes  a  prophecy,  printed  in  1588,  in  Greek 
characters,  which  exactly  deciphered,  he  says,  the 
long  troubles  the  English  nation  endured  from  1641 
to  1660,  but  he  omits  to  tell  us  where  he  saw  it,  or 
who  was  its  author.  It  ended  in  the  following 
mysterious  fashion  : 

11—2 


164  WITCH,  WARLOCK,  AND  MAGICIAN.         [BOOK  I. 

'  And  after  that  shall  come  a  dreadful  dead  man, 
and  with  him  a  royal  G '  (it  is  gamma,  F,  in  the 
Greek,  intending  C  in  the  Latin,  being  the  third 
letter  in  the  alphabet),  '  of  the  best  blood  in  the 
world,  and  he  shall  have  the  crown,  and  shall  set 
England  in  the  right  way,  and  put  out  all  heresies.' 

To  a  man  who  could  read  the  secrets  of  the  stars, 
and  divine  the  events  of  the  future,  there  was,  of 
course,  nothing  mysterious  or  obscure  in  these  lines, 
and  their  meaning  he  had  no  difficulty  in  determin- 
ing. Monkery  having  been  extinguished  above 
eighty  or  ninety  years,  and  the  Lord-General's  name 
being  Monk,  what  more  clear  than  that  he  must  be 
the  i  dead  man '  ?  And  as  for  the  royal  F,  or  C,  who 
came  of  the  best  blood  of  the  world,  it  was  evident 
that  he  could  be  no  other  than  Charles  II.  ?  The 
unlearned  reader,  who  has  neither  the  stars  nor 
the  crystal  to  assist  him,  will,  nevertheless,  arrive  at 
the  conclusion  that  if  prophecies  can  be  interpreted 
in  this  liberal  fashion,  there  is  nothing  to  prevent 
even  him  from  assuming  the  role  of  an  interpreter  ! 

But  let  it  be  noted  that,  according  to  our  brilliant 
magicians,  *  these  two  prophecies  were  not  given 
vocally  by  the  angels,  but  by  inspection  of  the  crystal 
in  types  and  figures,  or  by  apparition,  the  circular 
way,  where,  at  some  distance,  the  angels  appear, 
representing  by  forms,  shapes,  and  motions,  what  is 
demanded.  It  is  very  rare,  yea,  even  in  our  days, 
for  any  operator  or  master  to  have  the  angels  speak 
articulately  ;  when  they  do  speak,  it  is  like  the  Irish, 
much  in  the  throat.1 


CHAP.  V.]     LAST  OF  THE  ENGLISH  MAGICIANS.  165 

In  June,  1660,  Lilly  was  summoned  before  a 
Committee  of  the  House  of  Commons  to  answer  to 
an  inquiry  concerning  the  executioner  employed  to 
behead  Charles  I.  Here  is  his  account  of  the 
examination  : 

4  God's  providence  appeared  very  much  for  me  that 
day,  for  walking  in  Westminster  Hall,  Mr.  Richard 
Pennington,  son  to  my  old  friend,  Mr.  William 
Pennington,  met  me,  and  inquiring  the  cause  of  my 
being  there,  said  no  more,  but  walked  up  and  down 
the  Hall,  and  related  my  kindness  to  his  father  unto 
very  many  Parliament  men  of  Cheshire  and  Lancashire, 
Yorkshire,  Cumberland,  and  those  northern  counties, 
who  numerously  came  up  into  the  Speaker's  chamber, 
and  bade  me  be  of  good  comfort  ;  at  last  he  meets 
Mr.  Weston,  one  of  the  three  [the  two  others  were 
Mr.  Prinn  and  Colonel  King]  unto  whom  my  matter 
was  referred  for  examination,  who  told  Mr.  Penning- 
ton that  he  came  purposely  to  punish  me,  and  would 
be  bitter  against  me  ;  but  hearing  it  related,  namely, 
my  singular  kindness  and  preservation  of  old  Mr. 
Pennington's  estate,  to  the  value  of  £6,000  or 
£7,000,  "I  will  do  him  all  the  good  I  can,"  says  he. 
lt  I  thought  he  had  never  done  any  good  ;  let  me  see 
him,  and  let  him  stand  behind  me  where  I  sit."  I 
did  so.  At  my  first  appearance,  many  of  the  young 
members  affronted  me  highly,  and  demanded  several 
scurrilous  questions.  Mr.  Weston  held  a  paper 
before  his  mouth  ;  bade  me  answer  nobody  but  Mr. 
Prinn  ;  I  obeyed  his  command,  and  saved  myself 
much  trouble  thereby  ;  and  when  Mr.  Prinn  put  any 


166  WITCH,  WAKLOCK,  AND  MAGICIAN.        [BOOK  I. 

difficult  or  doubtful  query  unto  me,  Mr.  Weston 
prompted  me  with  a  fit  answer.  At  last,  after 
almost  one  hour's  tugging,  I  desired  to  be  fully  heard 
what  I  could  say  as  to  the  person  who  cut  Charles  I.'s 
head  off.  Liberty  being  given  me  to  speak,  I  related 
what  follows,  viz.  : 

'  That  the  next  Sunday  but  one  after  Charles  I. 
was  beheaded,  Robert  Spavin,  Secretary  unto  Lieu- 
tenant-General Cromwell  at  that  time,  invited  himself 
to  dine  with  me,  and  brought  Anthony  Peirson  and 
several  others  along  with  him  to  dinner:  that  their 
principal  discourse  all  dinner-time  was  only  who  it 
was  that  beheaded  the  King.  One  said  it  was  the 
common  hangman ;  another,  Hugh  Peters ;  others 
also  were  nominated,  but  none  concluded.  Robert 
Spavin,  so  soon  as  dinner  was  done,  took  me  by  the 
hand,  and  carried  me  to  the  south  window :  saith  he, 
"  These  are  all  mistaken,  they  have  not  named  the 
man  that  did  the  fact:  it  was  Lieu  tenant- Colonel 
Joyce.  I  was  in  the  room  when  he  fitted  himself  for 
the  work,  stood  behind  him  when  he  did  it;  when 
done,  went  in  again  with  him.  There  is  no  man 
knows  this  but  my  master,  namely,  Cromwell,  Com- 
missary Ireton,  and  myself."  "  Doth  not  Mr.  Rush- 
worth  know  it?"  said  I.  "  No,  he  doth  not  know  it," 
saith  Spavin.  The  same  thing  Spavin  since  had 
often  related  unto  me  when  we  were  alone.  Mr. 
Prinn  did,  with  much  civility,  make  a  report  hereof 
in  the  House;  yet  Norfolk,  the  Serjeant,  after  my 
discharge,  kept  me  two  days  longer  in  arrest,  pur- 
posely to  get  money  of  me.  He  had  six  pounds,  and 


CHAP.   V.]     LAST  OF  THE  ENGLISH  MAGICIANS.  167 

his  messenger  forty  shillings ;  and  yet  I  was  attached 
but  upon  Sunday,  examined  on  Tuesday,  and  then 
discharged,  though  the  covetous  Serjeant  detained  me 
until  Thursday.  By  means  of  a  friend,  I  cried  quit- 
tance with  Norfolk,  which  friend  was  to  pay  him  his 
salary  at  that  time,  and  abated  Norfolk  three  pounds, 
which  he  spent  every  penny  at  one  dinner,  without 
inviting  the  wretched  Serjeant ;  but  in  the  latter  end 
of  the  year,  when  the  King's  Judges  were  arraigned 
at  the  Old  Bailey,  Norfolk  warned  me  to  attend, 
believing  I  could  give  information  concerning  Hugh 
Peters.  At  the  Sessions  I  attended  during  its  con- 
tinuance, but  was  never  called  or  examined.  There 
I  heard  Harrison,  Scott,  Clement,  Peters,  Harker, 
Scroop,  and  others  of  the  King's  Judges,  and  Cook 
the  Solicitor,  who  excellently  defended  himself;  I 
say,  I  did  hear  what  they  could  say  for  themselves, 
and  after  heard  the  sentence  of  condemnation  pro- 
nounced against  them  by  the  incomparably  modest 
and  learned  Judge  Bridgman,  now  Lord  Keeper  of 
the  Great  Seal  of  England.' 

In  spite  of  Spavin's  circumstantial  statement,  as 
recorded  by  Lilly,  it  is  now  conclusively  established 
that  the  executioner  of  Charles  I.  was  Richard 
Brandon,  the  common  executioner,  who  had  previ- 
ously beheaded  the  Earl  of  Strafford.  It  is  said  that 
he  was  afterwards  seized  with  poignant  remorse  for 
the  act,  and  died  in  great  mental  suffering.  His 
body  was  carried  to  the  grave  amid  the  execrations  of 
an  excited  and  angry  populace. 

Though  our  astrologer,  as  we  have  seen,  was  at 


168  WITCH,  WARLOCK,  AND  MAGICIAN.        [BOOK  I. 

heart  a  Royalist,  his  services  towards  the  Parlia- 
mentary cause  were  sufficiently  conspicuous  to  ex- 
pose him  after  the  Restoration  to  a  good  deal  of 
persecution ;  and  he  found  it  advisable  to  sue  out  his 
pardon  under  the  Great  Seal,  which  cost  him,  as  he 
takes  care  to  tell  us,  £13  6s.  8d. 

He  claimed  to  have  foreseen  the  Restoration,  and 
all  the  good  things  which  flowed — or  were  expected 
to  have  flowed — from  that  '  auspicious  event.'  In 
page  111  of  his  '  Prophetical  Merlin/  published  in 
1644,  dwelling  upon  three  sextile  aspects  of  Saturn 
and  Jupiter  made  in  1659  and  1660,  he  says:  '  This, 
their  friendly  salutation,  comforts  us  in  England : 
every  man  now  possesses  his  own  vineyard ;  our 
young  youth  grow  up  unto  man's  estate,  and  our  old 
men  live  their  full  years  ;  our  nobles  and  gentlemen 
rest  again ;  our  yeomanry,  many  years  disconsolated, 
now  take  pleasure  in  their  husbandry.  The  merchant 
sends  out  ships,  and  hath  prosperous  returns  ;  the 
mechanic  hath  quick  trading ;  here  is  almost  a  new 
world  ;  new  laws,  new  lords.  Now  any  county  of 
England  shall  shed  no  more  tears,  but  rejoice  with 
and  in  the  many  blessings  God  gives  or  affords  her 
annually/ 

He  also  wrote,  he  says,  to  Sir  Edward  Walker, 
Garter  King-at-Arms  in  1659,  when,  by  the  way,  the 
restoration  of  Charles  II.  was  an  event  that  loomed  in 
the  near  future,  and  was  anticipated  by  every  man  of 
ordinary  political  sagacity  :  '  Tu,  Dominusque  vester 
videbitis  Angliam,  infra  duos  annis '  (Youkand  your 
Lord  shall  see  England  within  two  years).  '  For 


CHAP.  V.]     LAST  OF  THE  ENGLISH  MAGICIANS.  169 

in  1662,'  adds  the  arch  impostor,  in  his  strange 
astrological  jargon,  '  his  moon  came  by  direction  to 
the  body  of  the  sun.' 

'  But  he  came  in  upon  the  ascendant  directed  unto  the 
trine  of  Sol-  and  antiscion  of  Jupiter.' 

No  doubt  he  did.  Who  would  presume  to  contra- 
dict our  English  Merlin  ? 

In  1663  and  1664  he  served  as  churchwarden — 
surely  the  first  and  last  astrologer  who  filled  that  re- 
spectable office — of  Walton-upon-Thames,  settling  as 
well  as  he  could  the  affairs  of  that  '  distracted  parish ' 
upon  his  own  charges. 

An  absurdly  frivolous  accusation  was  brought 
against  him  in  the  year  1666.  He  was  once  more  sum- 
moned before  a  Committee  of  the  House  of  Commons, 
because  in  his  book,  c  Monarchy  or  No  Monarchy,' 
published  in  1651,  he  had  introduced  sixteen  plates, 
of  which  the  eighth  represented  persons  digging 
graves,  with  coffins  and  other  emblems  of  mortality, 
and  the  thirteenth  a  city  in  flames.  Hence  it  was 
inferred  that  he  must  have  had  something  to  do  with 
the  Great  Fire  which  had  destroyed  so  large  a  part  of 
London,  if  riot  with  the  Plague,  which  had  almost 
depopulated  it.  The  chairman,  Sir  Robert  Burke, 
on  his  coming  into  the  Committee's  presence,  ad- 
dressed him  thus : 

'  Mr.  Lilly,  this  Committee  thought  fit  to  summon 
you  to  appear  before  them  this  day,  to  know  if  you 
can  say  anything  as  to  the  cause  of  the  late  Fire,  or 
whether  there  might  be  any  design  therein.  You 
are  called  the  rather  hither,  because  in  a  book  of 


170  WITCH,  WARLOCK,  AND  MAGICIAN.        [BOOK  I. 

yours,    long   since  printed,    you   hinted    some   such 
thing  by  one  of  your  hieroglyphics.' 

Whereto  Mr.  Lilly  replied,  with  a  firm  assumption 
of  superior  wisdom  and  oracular  knowledge  : 

*  May  it  please  your  Honours, — After  the  behead- 
ing of  the  late  King,  considering  that  in  the  three 
subsequent  years  the  Parliament  acted  nothing  which 
concerned  the  settlement  of  the  nation  in  peace ;  and 
seeing  the  generality  of  people  dissatisfied,  the 
citizens  of  London  discontented,  the  soldiery  prone 
to  mutiny,  I  was  desirous,  according  to  the  best 
knowledge  God  had  given  me,  to  make  inquiry  by 
the  art  I  studied,  what  might  from  that  time  happen 
unto  the  Parliament  and  nation  in  general.  At  last, 
having  satisfied  myself  as  well  as  I  could,  and  per- 
fected my  judgment  therein,  I  thought  it  most  con- 
venient to  signify  my  intentions  and  conceptions 
thereof  in  Forms,  Shapes,  Types,  Hieroglyphics,  etc., 
without  any  commentary,  that  so  my  judgment  might 
be  concealed  from  the  vulgar,  and  made  manifest  only 
unto  the  wise.  I  herein  imitating  the  examples  of 
many  wise  philosophers  who  had  done  the  like.' 

'  Sir  Robert,'  saith  one,  '  Lilly  is  yet  sub  vestibulo.' 

1  Having  found,  sir,'  continued  Lilly,  '  that  the 
city  of  London  should  be  sadly  afflicted  with  a  great 
plague,  and  not  long  after  with  an  exorbitant  Fire,  I 
framed  those  two  hieroglyphics  as  represented  in  the 
book,  which  in  effect  have  proved  very  true.' 

4  Did  you  foresee  the  year  ?'  inquired  a  member  of 
the  Committee. 

'  I  did  not,'  said  Lilly,  '  nor  was  desirous ;  of  that 


CHAP.  V.]     LAST  OF  THE  ENGLISH  MAGICIANS.  171 

I  made  no  scrutiny.  Now,  sir,'  he  proceeded, 
'whether  there  was  any  design  of  burning  the 
city,  or  any  employed  to  that  purpose,  I  must  deal 
ingenuously  with  you,  that  since  the  Fire,  I  have 
taken  much  pains  in  the  search  thereof,  but  can- 
not or  could  not  give  myself  any  the  least  satisfac- 
tion therein.  I  conclude,  that  it  was  the  only  finger 
of  God;  but  what  instruments  he  used  thereunto,  I 


am  ignorant. 


In  1665  Lilly  finally  left  London,  and  settling 
down  at  Hersham,  applied  himself  to  the  study  of 
medicine,  in  which  he  arrived  at  so  competent  a 
degree  of  knowledge,  assisted  by  diligent  observation 
and  experiment,  that,  in  October,  1670,  on  a  testi- 
monial from  two  physicians  of  the  College  in  London, 
he  obtained  from  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury  a 
license  to  practise.  In  his  new  profession  this  clever, 
plausible  fellow  was,  of  course,  successful.  Every 
Saturday  he  rode  to  Kingston,  whither  the  poorer 
sort  flocked  to  him  from  all  the  countryside,  and  he 
dispensed  his  advice  and  prescriptions  freely  and 
without  charge.  From  those  in  a  better  social 
position  he  now  and  then  took  a  shilling,  and  some- 
times half  a  crown,  if  it  were  offered  to  him ;  but  he 
never  demanded  a  fee.  And,  indeed,  his  charity 
towards  the  poor  seems  to  have  been  real  and 
unaffected.  He  displayed  the  greatest  care  in  con- 
sidering and  weighing  their  particular  cases,  and  in 
applying  proper  remedies  for  their  infirmities — a  line 
of  conduct  which  gained  him  deserved  popularity. 


172  WITCH,  WARLOCK,  AND  MAGICIAN. 

Gifted  with  a  robust  constitution,  he  enjoyed  good 
health  far  on  into  old  age.  He  seems  to  have  had  no 
serious  illness  until  he  was  past  his  seventy-second 
birthday,  and  from  this  attack  he  recovered  com- 
pletely. In  November,  1675,  he  was  less  fortunate, 
a  severe  attack  of  fever  reducing  him  to  a  condition 
of  great  physical  weakness,  and  so  affecting  his  eye- 
sight that  thenceforward  he  was  compelled  to  employ 
the  services  of  an  amanuensis  in  drawing  up  his 
annual  astrological  budget.  After  an  attack  of 
dysentery,  in  the  spring  of  1681,  he  became  totally 
blind  ;  a  few  weeks  later  he  was  seized  with  paralysis  ; 
and  on  June  9  he  passed  away,  '  without  any  show 
of  trouble  or  pangs.' 

He  was  buried,  on  the  following  evening,  in  the 
chancel  of  Walton  Church,  where  Elias  Ashmole,  a 
month  later,  placed  a  slab  of  fair  black  marble  ('  which 
cost  him  six  pounds  four  shillings  and  sixpence '), 
with  the  following  epitaph,  in  honour  of  his  departed 
friend :  '  Ne  Oblivione  conteretur  Urna  GULIELMI 
LILLII,  Astrologi  Peritissimi  Qui  Fatis  cessit,  Quinto 
Idus  Junii,  Anno  Christ!  Juliano,  MDCLXXXI,  Hoc 
ill!  posuit  amoris  Monumentum  ELIAS  ASHMOLE, 
Armiger/  There  is  a  pagan  flavour  about  the 
phrases  '  Qui  Fatis  cessit,'  and  '  Quinto  Idus  Junii/  and 
they  read  oddly  enough  within  the  walls  of  a  Chris- 
tian church. 

There  are  two  sides  to  every  shield.  As  regards 
our  astrologer,  the  last  of  the  English  magicians  who 
held  a  position  of  influence,  let  us  first  take  the  silver 
side,  as  presented  in  the  eulogistic  verse  of  Master 


CHAP.  V.]     LAST  OF  THE  ENGLISH  MAGICIANS.  173 

George  Smalridge,  scholar  at  Westminster.  Thus 
it  is  that  he  describes  his  hero's  capacity  and 
potentiality.  '  Our  prophet's  gone,'  he  exclaims  in 

lugubrious  tones — 

1  No  longer  may  our  ears 

Be  charmed  with  musick  of  th'  harmonious  spheres  : 
Let  sun  and  moon  withdraw,  leave  gloomy  night 
To  show  their  Nuncio's  fate,  who  gave  more  light 
To  th'  erring  world,  than  all  the  feeble  rays 
Of  sun  or  moon ;  taught  us  to  know  those  days 
Bright  Titan  makes  ;  followed  the  hasty  sun 
Through  all  his  circuits ;  knew  the  unconstant  moon, 
And  more  constant  ebbings  of  the  flood ; 
And  what  is  most  uncertain,  th'  factious  brood, 
Flowing  in  civil  broils  :  by  the  heavens  could  date 
The  flux  and  reflux  of  our  dubious  state. 
He  saw  the  eclipse  of  sun,  and  change  of  moon 
He  saw ;  but  seeing  would  not  shun  his  own  : 
Eclipsed  he  was,  that  he  might  shine  more  bright, 
And  only  changed  to  give  a  fuller  light. 
He  having  viewed  the  sky,  and  glorious  train 
Of  gilded  stars,  scorned  longer  to  remain 
In  earthly  prisons  :  could  he  a  village  love 
Whom  the  twelve  houses  waited  for  above  V 

The  other  side  of  the  shield  is  turned  towards  us 
by  Butler,  who,  in  his  '  Hudibras,'  paints  Lilly  with 
all  the  dark  enduring  colours  which  a  keen  wit  could 
place  at  the  disposal  of  political  prejudice.  When 
Hudibras  is  unable  to  solve  'the  problems  of  his 
fate,'  Ralpho,  his  squire,  advises  him  to  apply  to  the 
famous  thaumaturgist.  He  says : 

'  Not  far  from  hence  doth  dwell 

A  cunning  man,  hight  Sidrophel, 

That  deals  in  Destiny's  dark  counsels, 

And  sage  opinions  of  the  Moon  sells ; 

To  whom  all  people,  far  arid  near, 

On  deep  importances  repair  : 


174  WITCH,  WARLOCK,  AND  MAGICIAN.        [BOOK  I. 

When  brass  and  pewter  hap  to  stray, 
And  linen  slinks  out  o'  the  way ; 
When  geese  and  pullen  are  seduced, 
And  sows  of  sucking  pigs  are  choused ; 
When  cattle  feel  indisposition, 
And  need  th'  opinion  of  physician ; 
When  murrain  reigns  in  hogs  or  sheep, 
And  chickens  languish  of  the  pip  ; 
When  yeast  and  outward  means  do  fail, 
And  have  no  pow'r  to  work  on  ale ; 
When  butter  does  refuse  to  come, 
And  love  proves  cross  and  humoursome ; 
To  him  with  questions,  and  with  urine, 
They  for  disco  v'ry  flock,  or  curing.' 

After  this  humorous  reductio  ad  absurdum  of  Tally's 
pretensions  as  an  astrologer,  the  satirist  proceeds  to 
allude  to  his  dealings  with  the  Puritan  party : 

'  Do  not  our  great  Reformers  use 
This  Sidrophel  to  forebode  news ; 
To  write  of  victories  next  year, 
And  castles  taken,  yet  i'  th'  air  ? 
Of  battles  fought  at  sea,  and  ships 
Sunk,  two  years  hence,  the  last  eclipse  V 

The  satirist  then  devotes  himself  to  a  minute 
exposure  of  Lilly's  pretensions : 

'  He  had  been  long  t' wards  mathematics, 
Optics,  philosophy,  and  statics  ; 
Magic,  horoscopy,  astrology, 
And  was  old  dog  at  physiology ; 
But  as  a  dog  that  turns  the  spit 
Bestirs  himself,  and  plies  his  feet 
To  climb  the  wheel,  but  all  in  vain, 
His  own  weight  brings  him  down  again, 
And  still  he's  in  the  self-same  place 
Where  at  his  setting  out  he  was ; 
So  in  the  circle  of  the  arts 
Did  he  advance  his  nat'ral  parts  .  .  . 


CHAP.  V.]     LAST  OF  THE  ENGLISH  MAGICIAN'S.  175 

Whate'er  he  laboured  to  appear, 
His  understanding  still  was  clear ; 
Yet  none  a  deeper  knowledge  boasted, 
Since  old  Hodge  Bacon  and  Bob  Grosted.' 

(Eobert  Grostete,  Bishop  of  Lincoln  [temp. 
Henry  III.],  whose  learning  procured  him  among 
the  ignorant  the  reputation  of  being  a  conjurer.) 

'  He  had  read  Dee's  prefaces  before 
The  Dev'l  and  Euclid  o'er  and  o'er ; 
And  all  th'  intrigues  'twixt  him  and  Kelly, 
Lascus,  and  th'  Emperor,  would  tell  ye ; 
But  with  the  moon  was  more  familiar 
Than  e'er  was  almanack  well-wilier; 
Her  secrets  understood  so  clear, 
That  some  believed  he  had  been  there; 
Knew  when  she  was  in  fittest  mood 
For  cutting  corns  or  letting  blood  .  .  .' 

Continuing  his  enumeration  of  the  conjurer's 
various  and  versatile  achievements,  the  poet  says 
he  can — 

'  Cure  warts  and  corns  with  application 

Of  med'cines  to  th'  imagination ; 

Fright  agues  into  dogs,  and  scare 

With  rhymes  the  toothache  and  catarrh ; 

Chase  evil  spirits  away  by  dint 

Of  sickle,  horse-shoe,  hollow  flint ; 

Spit  fire  out  of  a  walnut-shell, 

Which  made  the  Roman  slaves  rebel ; 

And  fire  a  mine  in  China  here 

With  sympathetic  gunpowder. 

He  knew  whats'ever's  to  be  known, 

But  much  more  than  he  knew  would  own  .   .  . 

How  many  diffrent  specieses 

Of  maggots  breed  in  rotten  cheese ; 

And  which  are  next  of  kin  to  those 

Engendered  in  a  chandler's  nose  ; 

Or  those  not  seen,  but  understood, 

That  live  in  vinegar  and  wood .' 


176  WITCH,  WARLOCK,  AND  MAGICIAN.        [BOOK  I. 

In  the  course  of  the  long  dialogue  that  takes  place 
between  Hudibras  and  the  astrologer,  Butler  con- 
trives to  introduce  a  clever  and  trenchant  exposure 
of  the  follies  and  absurdities,  the  impositions  and 
assumptions,  of  the  art  of  magic.  With  reference  to 
the  pretensions  of  astrologers,  he  observes  that — 

*  There's  but  the  twinkling  of  a  star 
Between  a  man  of  peace  and  war, 
A  thief  and  justice,  fool  and  knave, 
A  huffing  officer  and  a  slave, 
A  crafty  lawyer  and  pick-pocket, 
A  great  philosopher  and  a  blockhead, 
A  formal  preacher  and  a  player, 
A  learn'd  physician  and  man-slayer ; 
As  if  men  from  the  stars  did  suck 
Old  age,  diseases,  and  ill-luck, 
Wit,  folly,  honour,  virtue,  vice, 
Trade,  travel,  women,  claps,  and  dice ; 
And  draw,  with  the  first  air  they  breathe, 
Battle  and  murder,  sudden  death. 
Are  not  these  fine  commodities 
To  be  imported  from  the  skies, 
And  vended  here  among  the  rabble, 
For  staple  goods  and  warrantable  ? 
Like  money  by  the  Druids  borrowed 
In  th'  other  world  to  be  restored.' 

The  character  of  Lilly  is  to  some  extent  a  problem, 
and  I  confess  it  is  not  one  of  easy  or  direct  solution. 
As  I  have  already  hinted,  it  is  always  difficult  to  draw 
the  line  between  conscious  and  unconscious  imposture 
— to  determine  when  a  man  who  has  imposed  upon 
himself  begins  to  impose  upon  others.  But  was 
Lilly  self-deceived  ?  Or  was  he  openly  and  knowingly 
a  fraud  and  a  cheat  ?  For  myself  I  cannot  answer 
either  question  in  the  affirmative.  I  do  not  think  he 


CHAP.   V.]     LAST  OF  THE  ENGLISH  MAGICIANS.  177 

was  entirely  innocent  of  deception,  but  I  also  believe 
that  he  was  not  wholly  a  rogue.  I  think  he  had  a 
lingering  confidence  in  the  reality  of  his  horoscopes, 
his  figures,  his  stellar  prophecies ;  though  at  the 
same  time  he  did  not  scruple  to  trade  on  the  credulity 
of  his  contemporaries  by  assuming  to  himself  a  power 
and  a  capacity  which  he  did  not  possess,  and  knew 
that  he  did  not  possess.  Despite  his  vocation,  he 
seems  to  have  lived  decently,  and  in  good  repute. 
The  activity  of  his  enemies  failed  to  bring  against  him 
any  serious  charges,  and  we  know  that  he  enjoyed 
the  support  of  men  of  light  and  leading,  who  would 
have  stood  aloof  from  a  common  charlatan  or  a  vulgar 
knave.  He  was,  it  is  certain,  a  very  shrewd  and 
quick  observer,  with  a  keen  eye  for  the  signs  of  the 
times,  and  a  wide  knowledge  of  human  nature;  and 
his  success  in  his  peculiar  craft  was  largely  due  to 
this  alertness  of  vision,  this  practical  knowledge,  and 
to  the  ingenuity  and  readiness  with  which  he  made 
use  of  all  the  resources  at  his  command. 

NOTE.— DR.  DEE'S   MAGIC   CRYSTAL. 

Horace  Walpole  gives  an  amusing  account  of  Kelly's  famous 
crystal,  and  of  the  useful  part  it  played  in  a  burglary  committed 
at  his  house  in  Arlington  Street  in  the  spring  of  1771.  At  the 
time,  he  was  taking  his  ease  at  his  Strawberry  Hill  villa,  near  Ted- 
dington,  when  a  courier  brought  him  news  of  what  had  occurred. 
Writing  to  his  friend,  Sir  Horace  Mann,  March  22,  he  says  : 

'  I  was  a  good  quarter  of  an  hour  before  I  recollected  that  it 
was  very  becoming  to  have  philosophy  enough  not  to  care  about 
what  one  does  care  for ;  if  you  don't  care,  there  is  no  philosophy 
in  bearing  it.  I  despatched  my  upper  servant,  breakfasted,  fed 
the  bantams  as  usual,  and  made  no  more  hurry  to  town  than 
Cincinnatus  would  if  he  had  lost  a  basket  of  turnips.  I  left  in 

12 


178  WITCH,  WARLOCK,  AND  MAGICIAN.        [BOOK  I. 

my  drawers  £270  of  bank  bills  and  three  hundred  guineas,  not 
to  mention  all  my  gold  and  silver  coins,  some  inestimable 
miniatures,  a  little  plate,  and  a  good  deal  of  furniture,  under  no 
guard  but  that  of  two  maidens.  .  .  . 

'  When  I  arrived,  my  surprise  was  by  no  means  diminished.  I 
found  in  three  different  chambers  three  cabinets,  a  large  chest,  and 
a  glass  case  of  china  wide  open,  the  locks  not  picked,  but  forced, 
and  the  doors  of  them  broken  to  pieces.  You  will  wonder  that 
this  should  surprise  me,  when  I  had  been  prepared  for  it.  Oh, 
the  miracle  was  that  I  did  not  find,  nor  to  this  time  have  found, 
the  least  thing  missing  !  In  the  cabinet  of  modern  medals  there 
were,  and  so  there  are  still,  a  series  of  English  coins,  with  down- 
right John  Trot  guineas,  half-guineas,  shillings,  sixpences,  and 
every  kind  of  current  money.  Not  a  single  piece  was  removed. 
Just  so  in  the  Roman  and  Greek  cabinet,  though  in  the  latter 
were  some  drawers  of  papers,  which  they  had  tumbled  and 
scattered  about  the  floor.  A  great  exchequer  desk,  that  belonged 
to  my  father,  was  in  the  same  room.  Not  being  able  to  force  the 
lock,  the  philosophers  (for  thieves  that  steal  nothing  deserve  the 
title  much  more  than  Cincinnatus  or  I)  had  wrenched  a  great 
flapper  of  brass  with  such  violence  as  to  break  it  into  seven 
pieces.  The  trunk  contained  a  new  set  of  chairs  of  French 
tapestry,  two  screens,  rolls  of  prints,  and  a  suit  of  silver  stuff 
that  I  had  made  for  the  King's  wedding.  All  was  turned  topsy- 
turvy, and  nothing  stolen.  The  glass  case  and  cabinet  of  shells 
had  been  handled  as  roughly  by  these  impotent  gallants.  Another 
little  table  with  drawers,  in  which,  by  the  way,  the  key  was  left, 
had  been  opened  too,  and  a  metal  standish,  that  they  ought  to 
have  taken  for  silver,  and  a  silver  hand-candlestick  that  stood 
upon  it,  were  untouched.  Some  plate  in  the  pantry,  and  all 
my  linen  just  come  from  the  wash,  had  no  more  charms  for  them 
than  gold  or  silver.  In  short,  I  could  not  help  laughing,  especially 
.  as  the  only  two  movables  neglected  were  another  little  table  with 
drawers  and  the  money,  and  a  writing-box  with  the  bank-notes, 
both  in  the  same  room  where  they  made  the  first  havoc.  In 
short,  they  had  broken  out  a  panel  in  the  door  of  the  area,  and 
unbarred  and  unbolted  it,  and  gone  out  at  the  street-door,  which 
they  left  wide  open  at  five  o'clock  in  the  morning.  A  passenger 
had  found  it  so,  and  alarmed  the  maids,  one  of  whom  ran  naked 
into  the  street,  and  by  her  cries  waked  my  Lord  Romney,  who 
lives  opposite.  The  poor  creature  was  in  fits  for  two  days,  but  at 


CHAP.    V. 


NOTE.  179 


first,  finding  my  coachmaker's  apprentice  in  the  street,  had  sent 
him  to  Mr.  Con  way,  who  immediately  despatched  him  to  me 
before  he  knew  how  little  damage  I  had  received,  the  whole 
of  which  consists  in  repairing  the  doors  and  locks  of  my  cabinets 
and  coffers. 

'  All  London  is  reasoning  on  this  marvellous  adventure,  and  not 
one  argument  presents  itself  that  some  other  does  not  contradict. 
I  insist  that  I  have  a  talisman.  You  must  know  that  last  winter, 
being  asked  by  Lord  Ye  re  to  assist  in  settling  Lady  Betty 
Germaine's  auction,  I  found  in  an  old  catalogue  of  her  collection 
this  article,  "  The  Black  Stone  into  which  Dr.  Dee  used  to  call  his 
spirits"  Dr.  Dee,  you  must  know,  was  a  great  conjurer  in  the 
days  of  Queen  Elizabeth,  and  has  written  a  folio  of  the  dialogues 
he  held  with  his  imps.  I  asked  eagerly  for  this  stone;  Lord  Yere 
said  he  knew  of  no  such  thing,  but  if  found,  it  should  certainly 
be  at  my  service.  Alas,  the  stone  was  gone  !  This  winter  I  was 
again  employed  by  Lord  Frederick  Campbell,  for  I  am  an  absolute 
auctioneer,  to  do  him  the  same  service  about  his  father's  (the 
Duke  of  Argyll's)  collection.  Among  other  odd  things,  he 
produced  a  round  piece  of  shining  black  marble  in  a  leathern 
case  as  big  as  the  crown  of  a  hat,  and  asked  me  what  that  possibly 
could  be  1  I  screamed  out,  "  Oh,  Lord  !  I  am  the  only  man  in 
England  that  can  tell  you  !  .  .  .  It  is  Dr.  Dee's  'Black  Stone.'  " 
It  certainly  is;  Lady  Betty  had  formerly  given  away  or  sold, 
time  out  of  mind,  for  she  was  a  thousand  years  old,  that  part  of 
the  Peterborough  collection  which  contained  natural  philosophy. 
So,  or  since,  the  Black  Stone  had  wandered  into  an  auction,  for 
the  lotted  paper  was  still  on  it.  The  Duke  of  Argyll,  who 
bought  everything,  bought  it.  Lord  Frederick  [Campbell]  gave 
it  to  me ;  and  if  it  was  not  this  magical  stone,  which  is  only  of 
high-polished  coal,  that  preserved  my  chattels,  in  truth  I  cannot 
guess  what  did.'* 

At  the  great  Strawberry  Hill  sale,  in  1842,  which  dispersed  the 
Walpole  Collection,  it  was  described  in  the  catalogue  as  'a  singularly 
interesting  and  curious  relic  of  the  superstition  of  our  ancestors 
— the  celebrated  Speculum  of  Kennel  Coal,  highly  polished,  in  a 
leathern  case.  It  is  remarkable  for  having  been  used  to  deceive 
the  mob  (!)  by  the  celebrated  Dr.  Dee,  the  conjurer,  in  the  reign 
of  Queen  Elizabeth,'  etc. 

*  Horace  Walpole  (Earl  of  Orford),  'Letters,'  v.  290,  et  seq. 

12—2 


180  WITCH,  WARLOCK,  AND  MAGICIAN.        [BOOK  I. 

The  authorities  of  the  British  Museum  purchased  this  '  relic  of 
the  superstition  of  our  ancestors '  for  the  sum  of  twelve  guineas. 
It  is  neither  more  nor  less  than  what  it  has  been  described,  a 
polished  piece  of  cannel-eoal,  and  thus  explains  the  allusion  in 
Butler's  '  Hudibras  ' : 

'  Kelly  did  all  his  feats  upon 
The  devil's  looking-glass — a  stone.' 


CHAP.   VI.]  ENGLISH   EOSICRUCIANS.  181 


CHAPTER  VI. 

ENGLISH    ROSICRUCIANS. 

IT  is  not  very  easy  to  trace  the  origin  of  the  Rosicru- 
cian  Brotherhood.  It  is  not  easy,  indeed,  to  get  at 
the  true  derivation  of  the  name  '  Rosicrucian.'  Some 
authorities  refer  it  to  that  of  the  ostensible  founder  of 
the  society,  the  mysterious  Christian  Rosenkreuse,  but 
who  can  prove  that  such  an  individual  ever  existed  ? 
Others  borrow  it  from  the  Latin  word  ros,  dew,  and 
crux,  a  cross,  and  explain  it  thus  :  l  Dew/  of  all 
natural  bodies,  was  esteemed  the  most  powerful 
solvent  of  gold  ;  and  *  the  cross/  in  the  old  chemical 
language,  signified  light,  because  the  figure  of  a  cross 
exhibits  at  the  same  time  the  three  letters  which  form 
the  word  lux.  4  Now,  lux  is  called  the  seed,  or 
menstruum,  of  the  red  dragon;  or,  in  other  words, 
that  gross  and  corporeal  light,  which,  when  properly 
digested  and  modified,  produces  gold/  So  that, 
according  to  this  derivation,  a  Rosicrucian  is  one  who 
by  the  intervention  and  assistance  of  the  '  dew '  seeks 
for  '  light ' — that  is,  the  philosopher's  stone.  But  such 
an  etymology  is  evidently  too  fanciful,  and  assumes 
too  much  to  be  readily  accepted,  and  we  try  a  third 


182  WITCH,  WARLOCK,  AND  MAGICIAN.        [BOOK  I. 

derivation,  namely,  from  rosa  and  crux ;  in  support 
of  which  may  be  adduced  the  oldest  official  docu- 
ments of  the  brotherhood,  which  style  it  the  c  Broe- 
derschafft  des  Eoosen  Creutzes,'  or  Rose- Crucians,  or 
1  Fratres  Rosatae  Crucis  ;'  while  the  symbol  of  the 
order  is  '  a  red  rose  on  a  cross.'  Both  the  rose  and 
the  cross  possess  a  copious  emblematic  history,  and 
their  choice  by  a  secret  society,  which  clothed  its 
beliefs  and  fancies  in  allegorical  language,  is  by  no 
means  difficult  to  understand.  '  The  rose,'  says 
Eliphas  Levi,  in  his  f  Histoire  de  la  Magie,'  c  which 
from  time  immemorial  has  been  the  symbol  of  beauty 
and  life,  of  love  and  pleasure,  expressed  in  a  mystical 
manner  all  the  protestations  of  the  Renaissance.  It 
was  the  flesh  revolting  against  the  oppression  of  the 
spirit;  it  was  Nature  declaring  herself  to  be,  like 
Grace,  the  daughter  of  God  ;  it  was  Love  refusing  to 
be  stifled  by  celibacy  ;  it  was  Life  desiring  to  be  no 
longer  barren ;  it  was  Humanity  aspiring  to  a  natural 
religion,  full  of  love  and  reason,  founded  on  the  reve- 
lation of  the  harmonies  of  existence  of  which  the  rose 
was  for  initiates  the  living  and  blooming  symbol.  .  .  . 
The  reunion  of  the  rose  and  the  cross- — such  was  the 
problem  proposed  by  supreme  initiation,  and,  in  effect, 
occult  philosophy,  being  the  universal  synthesis, 
should  take  into  account  all  the  phenomena  of  Being. 
It  may  be  doubted,  however,  whether  this  ingenious 
symbolism  has  anything  at  all  to  do  with  Rosicru- 
cianism  ;  but  it  is  not  the  less  a  fact  that  the  rose 
and  the  cross  were  chosen  because  they  were  recog- 
nised emblems.  And  probably  because  the  rose  typi- 


CHAP.   VI.]  ENGLISH    IIOSICRUCIANS.  183 

fied  secrecy,  while  the  cross  was  a  protest  against  the 
tyranny  and  superstition  of  the  Papacy. 

We  hear  nothing  of  Rosicrucianism  until  the 
beginning  of  the  seventeenth  century.  The  earlier 
alchemists  knew  nothing  of  its  theosophic  doctrines ; 
and  the  earlier  Rosicrucians  did  not  dabble  in  alchemy. 
The  connection  between  the  two  was  established  at  a 
later  date ;  when  the  quest  of  the  '  elixir  of  life '  and  the 
'  philosopher's  stone '  was  grafted  upon  the  mysticism 
which  had  taken  up  the  ancient  teaching  of  the 
Alexandrian  Platonists,  combining  with  it  much  of 
the  allegorical  jargon  of  Paracelsus,  and  something 
of  the  theology  of  Luther  and  the  German  Reformers. 
The  antiquity  claimed  for  the  brotherhood  in  the 
'  Fama  Fraternitatis  '  is  purely  a  myth.  For  my 
own  part,  I  must  regard  as  its  virtual  founder — 
though  he  may  not  have  been  its  actual  initiator — 
the  celebrated  Johann  Valentine  Andreas,  who  with 
wide  and  profound  learning  united  a  lively  imagina- 
tion, and  was,  moreover,  a  man  of  pure  and  lofty 
purpose.  The  regeneration  of  humanity,  the  extirpa- 
tion of  the  vices  and  follies  which  had  sprung  up  in 
the  dark  shadow  of  the  mediaeval  Church,  was  the 
dream  of  his  life  ;  and  it  is  beyond  doubt  that  he 
hoped  to  realize  it  by  secret  societies  bound  together 
for  the  purpose  of  reforming  the  morals  of  the  age 
and  inspiring  men  with  a  love  of  wisdom.  This  is 
proved  by  three  of  his  acknowledged  works,  namely, 
'  Reipublicae  Christianapolitana3  Descriptio,'  4  Turris 
Babel,  sive  Judiciorum  de  Fraternitate  Rosaceae 
Crucis  Chaos/  and  'Christiana  Societatis  Idea';  and 


184  WITCH,  WAKLOCK,  AND  MAGICIAN.        [BOOK  I. 

I  venture  to  think,  though  Mr.  Waite  will  not  have 
it  so,  that  the  author  of  these  works  was  also  the 
author  of  the  'Fama,'  as  well  as  of  the  c  Confessio 
Fraternitatis  '  and  the  l  Nuptee  Chymicae/  in  which  he 
gathered  up  all  the  floating  dreams  and  traditions 
bearing  on  his  subject,  and  gave  to  them  a  certain 
form  and  order,  infusing  into  them  a  fascinating 

'  O  O 

poetical  colouring,  and  inspiring  them  with  his  own 
idealistic  speculations. 

4  Akin  to  the  school  of  the  ancient  Fire-Believers,' 
says  Ennemoser,  '  and  of  the  magnetists  of  a  later 
period,  of  the  same  cast  as  those  speculators  and 
searchers  into  the  mysteries  of  Nature,  drawing  from 
the  same  well,  are  the  theosophists  of  the  sixteenth 
and  seventeenth  centuries.  These  practised  chemistry, 
by  which  they  asserted  they  could  explore  the  pro- 
foundest  secrets  of  Nature.  As  they  strove,  above  all 
earthly  knowledge,  after  the  Divine,  and  sought  the 
Divine  light  and  fire,  through  which  all  men  can 
acquire  the  true  wisdom,  they  were  called  the  Fire- 
Philosophers  (philosophi  per  ignem).'  They  were 
identical  with  the  Rosicrucians,  and  in  the  books  of 
the  later  Rosicrucians  we  meet  with  the  same  mys- 
ticism and  transcendental  philosophy  as  in  theirs. 

Whether  we  agree  in  accepting  Andreas  as  the 
founder  of  the  order,  or  as  simply  its  hierophant,  we 
must  admit  that  the  rise  of  Rosicrucianism  dates  from 
the  publication  of  the  '  Fama '  and  the  '  Confessio 
Fraternitatis.'  They  produced  an  immense  sensation, 
passed  through  several  editions,  and  were  devoured 
by  multitudes  of  eager  readers.  '  In  the  library  at 


CHAP.   VI.]  ENGLISH    ROSICRUCIANS.  185 

Gottingen,'  says  De  Quincey  (adapting  from  Professor 
Buhle),  'there  is  a  body  of  letters  addressed  to  the 
imaginary  order  of  Father  Rosy  Cross,  from  1614  to 
1617,  by  persons  offering  themselves  as  members. 
.  .  .  As  certificates  of  their  qualifications,  most  of 
the  candidates  have  enclosed  specimens  of  their  skill 
in  alchemy  and  cabalism.  .  .  .  Many  other  literary 
persons  there  were  at  that  day  who  forbore  to  write 
letters  to  the  society,  but  threw  out  small  pamphlets 
containing  their  opinions  of  the  order,  and  of  its  place 
of  residence.' 

It  is  not  my  business,  however,  to  write  a  history 
of  Eosicrucianism.  I  have  desired  simply  to  say  so 
much  about  its  origin  as  will  serve  as  a  preface  to 
my  account  of  the  principal  English  members  of  the 
brotherhood.  The  reader  who  would  know  more 
about  its  origin  and  extension,  its  pretensions  and 
professors,  may  consult  Hecket horn's  '  Secret  Socie- 
ties of  all  Ages  and  Countries,'  Ennemoser's  '  History 
of  Magic/  Thomas  de  Quincey's  essay  on  '  Rosicrucians 
and  Freemasons/  and  Arthur  Edward  Waite's  '  Real 
History  of  the  Rosicrucians.'  * 

The  greatest  English  Rosicrucian,  and  most  dis- 
tinguished of  the  disciples  of  Paracelsus,  was  Robert 
Fludd  (or  Flood,  or  De  Fluctibus),  a  man  of  singular 
erudition,  of  great  though  misdirected  capacity,  and 
of  a  vivid  and  fertile  imagination. 

The  second  son  of  Sir  Thomas  Flood,  Treasurer 
of  War  to  Queen  Elizabeth,  he  was  born  at  Milgate 

*  See  also  Louis  Figuier's  '  L'Alchimie  et  les  Alchimistes,'  a 
popular  and  agreeable  survey ;  and  the  more  erudite  work  of  Pro- 
fessor Buhle. 


]  86  WITCH,  WAKLOCK,  AND  MAGICIAN.        [BOOK  I. 

House,  in  the  parish  of  Bersted,  Kent,  in  the  year 
1574.     At  the  age  of  seventeen  he  was  entered  of 
St.  John's  College,  Oxford.    His  father  had  originally 
intended  him  for  a  military  life,  but  finding  that  his 
inclinations  led  him  into  the  peaceful  paths  of  scholar- 
ship, he  forbore  to  oppose  them,  and  the  youth  entered 
upon  a  particular  study  of  medicine,  which  drew  him, 
no  doubt,  into  a  pursuit  of  alchemy  and  chemistry. 
Having  graduated  both  in  the  arts  and  sciences,  he 
went  abroad,  and  for  six  years  travelled  over  France, 
Germany,  Italy,  and  Spain,  making  the  acquaintance 
of  the  principal  Continental  scholars,  as  well  as  of  the 
enthusiasts  who  belonged  to  the  theosophic  school  of 
the  divine  Paracelsus,  and  the  adepts  who  dabbled  in 
the  secrets  of  the  Cabala.     Keturning  to  England  in 
1605,  he  became  a  member  of  the  College  of  Physicians, 
and  settled  down  to  practise  in  Coleman  Street,  London, 
where,  about  1616,  he  was  visited  by  the  celebrated 
German  alchemist,  Michael  Maier. 

His  active  imagination  stimulated  by  his  know- 
ledge of  the  Rosicrucian  doctrines,  he  resolved  on 
revealing  to  his  countrymen  the  true  light  of  science 
and  wisdom.  He  had  already,  as  a  believer  in  the 
theory  of  magnetism,  introduced  into  England  the 
celebrated  '  weapon  salve '  of  Paracelsus,  which  healed 
the  severest  wound  by  sympathy — not  being  applied 
to  the  wound  itself,  but  to  the  weapon  or  instrument 
that  had  caused  it.  The  recipe,  as  formulated  by 
Paracelsus,  would  hardly  be  approved  by  modern 
practitioners :  '  Take  of  moss  growing  on  the  head  of 
a  thief  who  has  been  hanged  and  left  in  the  air,  of 


CHAP.  VI.]  ENGLISH   ROSICRUCIANS.  187 

real  mummy,  of  human  blood  still  warm,  one  ounce 
each  ;  of  human  suet,  two  ounces  ;  of  linseed-oil,  tur- 
pentine, and  Armenian  bole,  of  each  two  drachms. 
Mix  together  thoroughly  in  a  mortar,  and  keep  the 
salve  in  a  narrow  oblong  urn/  This,  or,  I  presume, 
some  similar  compound,  Fludd  tried  with  success  in 
several  cases,  and  no  wonder  ;  for  while  the  sword 
was  anointed  and  put  away,  the  wound  was  well 
washed  and  carefully  bandaged — a  process  which  has 
been  known  to  succeed  in  our  own  day  without  the 
intervention  of  any  salve  whatever !  Fludd  contended 
that  every  disease  might  be  cured  by  the  magnet  if  it 
were  properly  applied  ;  but  that  as  every  man  had, 
like  the  earth,  a  north  pole  and  a  south,  magnetism 
could  be  produced  only  when  his  body  occupied  a 
boreal  position.  The  salve,  at  all  events,  grew  into 
instant  favour.  Among  other  believers  in  its  virtues 
was  Sir  Kenelm  Digby,  who,  however,  converted  the 
salve  into  a  powder,  which  he  named  4  the  powder  of 
sympathy.'  But  it  had  its  incredulous  opponents,  of 
whom  the  most  strenuous  was  a  certain  Pastor  Foster, 
who  published  an  invective  entitled  '  Hyplocrisma 
Spongus  ;  or,  A  Sponge  to  Wipe  Away  the  Weapon 
Salve/  and  affirmed  that  it  was  as  bad  as  witchcraft 
to  use  or  recommend  such  an  unguent,  that  its  in- 
ventor, the  devil,  would  at  the  Last  Day  claim 
every  person  who  had  meddled  with  it.  '  The  devil,' 
he  said,  'gave  it  to  Paracelsus,  Paracelsus  to  the 
Emperor,  the  Emperor  to  a  courtier,  the  courtier  to 
Baptista  Porta,  and  Baptista  Porta  to  Doctor  Fludd, 
a  doctor  of  physic,  yet  living  and  practising  in  the 


188  WITCH,  WARLOCK,  AND  MAGICIAN.        [BOOK  I. 

famous  city  of  London,  who  now  stands  tooth  and 
nail  for  it.'  Tooth  and  nail  Dr.  Fludd  met  his  ad- 
versary, and  the  public  were  infinitely  amused  by  the 
vehemence  of  his  style  in  his  pamphlet,  '  The  Spung- 
ing  of  Parson  Foster's  Spunge  ;  wherein  the  Spunge- 
carrier's  immodest  Carriage  and  Behaviour  towards 
his  Brethren  is  detected  ;  the  bitter  Flames  of  his 
Slanderous  Reports  are,  by  the  sharp  Vinegar  of 
Truth,  corrected  and  quite  extinguished  ;  and,  lastly, 
the  Virtuous  Validity  of  his  Spunge  in  wiping  away 
the  Weapon  Salve,  is  crushed  out  and  clean  abolished.' 
In  all  the  dreams  of  the  mediaeval  philosophy — in 
the  philosopher's  stone  and  the  stone  philosophic,  in 
the  universal  alkahest,  in  the  magical  '  elixir  vitae ' — 
Dr.  Fludd  was  a  serious  believer.  It  was  a  favourite 
hypothesis  of  his  that  all  things  depended  on  two 
principles — condensation,  or  the  boreal  principle,  and 
rarefaction,  the  southern  or  austral.  The  human 
body,  he  averred,  was  governed  by  a  number  of 
demons,  whom  he  distributed  over  a  rhomboidal 
figure.  Further,  he  taught  that  every  disease  had 
its  own  particular  demon,  the  evil  influence  of  which 
could  be  neutralized  only  by  the  assistance  of  the 
demon  placed  opposite  to  it  in  the  rhomboid.  The 
doctrines  of  the  Rosicrucian  brotherhood  he  defended 
with  a  charming  enthusiasm,  and  when  they  had 
been  attacked  by  Libavius  and  others,  he  set  them 
forth  in  what  he  conceived  to  be  their  true  light  in  his 
'  Apologia  Compendiaria  Fraternitatem  de  Rosea- 
Cruce  suspicionis  et  infamise  Maculis  Aspersam,'  etc. 
(published  at  Leyden  in  1616) — a  work  which  entitles 


CHAP.   VI.]  ENGLISH    ROSICRUCIANS.  189 

him  to  be  regarded  as  the  high-priest  of  their  mysteries. 
It  was  severely  criticised,  however,  by  contemporary 
men  of  science,  as  by  Kepler,  Gassendus  (in  his 
'  Epistolica  Exercitatio '),  and  Mersenne,  whose  search- 
ing analysis  of  the  pretensions  of  the  fraternity  pro- 
voked from  Fludd  an  elaborate  reply,  entitled  *  Sum- 
mum  Bonum,  quod  est  Magiee,  Cabalae,  Alchemiae, 
Fratrum  Roseae-Crucis  verorum,  et  adversus  Mer- 
senium  Calumniatorem.'* 

In  addition  to  the  foregoing  works,  Fludd  gave  to 
:he  world : 

1.  '  Utriusque  Cosmi,  Majoris  et  Minoris,  Technica 
Historia,'  2  vols.,  folio,  Oppenheim,  1616;  2.  '  Trac- 
tatus  Apologeticus  Integritatem  Societatis  de  Rosea- 
Oruce  Defendens,'  Ley  den,  1617  ;  3.  '  Monochordon 
Mundi  Symphoniacum,  seu  Replicatio  ad  Apologiam 
Johannis  Kepleri,'  Frankfort,  1620;  4.  'Anatomise 
Amphitheatrum  effigie  triplici  Designatum,'  Frank- 
fort, 1623;  5.  i  Philosophia  Sacra  et  vere  Christiana, 
seu  Meteorologica  Cosmica,'  Frankfort,  1626;  6. 
*  Medicina  Catholica,  seu  Mysterium  Artis  Medicandi 
Sacrarium/ Frankfort,  1631  ;  7.  'Integrum  Morborum 
Mysterium/  Frankfort,  1631  ;  8.  cClavis  Philosophise 
et  Alchymiaj,'  Frankfort,  1633;  9.  'Philosophia 
Mosaica/  Goudac,  1638  ;  and  10.  '  Pathologia  Dsemo- 
niaca,'  Goudac,  1640. 

The  last  two  treatises  were  posthumous  publications. 

*  This  is  sometimes  ascribed  to  Joachim  Fritz,  but  no  one  can 
doubt  that  virtually  it  is  Fludd's,  who  accompanied  it  with  a 
defence  of  his  general  philosophical  teaching,  entitled  'Sophise 
cum  Moria  Certamen.'  But  whose  was  *  the  Wisdom,'  and  whose 
4  the  Folly '  1 


190  WITCH,  WARLOCK,  AND  MAGICIAN.       [BOOK  I. 

Fludd  died  in  London  in  1637,  and  was  buried  in 
Bersted  Church,  where  an  imposing  monument  per- 
petuates his  memory.  It  represents  him  seated,  with 
his  hand  on  a  book,  from  the  perusal  of  which  his 
head  has  just  been  lifted.  Just  below  are  two  volumes 
(there  were  eight  originally)  in  marble,  inscribed 
respectively,  '  Mysterium  Cabalisticum '  and  '  Philo- 
sophia  Sacra.'  The  epitaph  runs  as  follows :  l  viii. 
Die  Mensis  vii.  A°  Dni,  M.D.C.XXXVII.  Odoribvs  vana 
vaporat  crypta  tegit  cineres  nee  speciosa  tros  qvod 
mortale  minvs  tibi.  Te  committimvs  vnvm  ingenii 
vivent  hie  monvmenti  tvi  nam  tibi  qvi  similis  scribit 
moritvrqve  sepvlchrvm  pro  tota  eternvm  posteritate 
facit.  Hoc  monvmentvm  Thomas  Flood  Gore  Courti 
in-coram  apud  Cantianos  armiger  infoelicissimum  in 
charissimi  patrvi  svi  memoriam  erexit  die  Mensis 
Avgvsti,  M. B.C. xxx vn.' 

I  shall  not  weary  the  reader  wTith  an  analysis  of 
any  of  Fludd' s  elaborately  mystical  productions. 
They  are  as  dead  as  anything  can  be,  and  no  power 
that  I  know  of  could  breathe  into  them  the  breath  of 
life.  But  I  may  quote  a  few  specimen  or  sample 
sentences,  so  to  speak,  which  will  afford  an  idea  of 
their  style  and  tone  : 

1  Particulars  are  frequently  fallible,  but  universal 
never.  Occult  philosophy  lays  bare  Nature  in  her 
complete  nakedness,  and  alone  contemplates  the  wis- 
dom of  universals  by  the  eyes  of  intelligence.  Accus- 
tomed to  partake  of  the  rivers  which  flow  from  the 
Fountain  of  Life,  it  is  unacquainted  with  grossness 
and  with  clouded  waters/ 


CHAP.   VI.]  ENGLISH    KUSICKUCIANS.  191 

In  reference  to  Music,  which  he  says  stands  in  the 
same  relation  to  arithmetic  as  medicine  to  natural 
philosophy,  he  revives  the  Pythagorean  idea  of  the 
harmony  of  the  universe  :  '  What  is  this  music  (of 
men)  compared  with  that  deep  and  true  music  of  the 
wise,  whereby  the  proportions  of  natural  things  are 
investigated,  the  harmonical  concord  and  the  qualities 
of  the  whole  world  are  revealed,  by  which  also  con- 
nected things  are  bound  together,  peace  established 
between  conflicting  elements,  and  whereby  each  star 
is  perpetually  suspended  in  its  appointed  place  by  its 
weight  and  strength,  and  by  the  harmony  of  its 
herent  spirit.' 

Light. — *  Nothing  in  this  world  can  be  accom- 
plished without  the  mediation  or  divine  act  of  light.' 

Magic. — '  That  most  occult  and  secret  department 
of  physics,  by  which  the  mystical  properties  of 
natural  substances  are  extracted,  we  term  Natural 
Magic.  The  wise  kings  who  (led  by  the  new  star 
from  the  east)  sought  the  infant  Christ,  are  called 
Magi,  because  they  had  attained  a  perfect  knowledge 
of  natural  things,  whether  celestial  or  sublunar.  This 
branch  of  the  Magi  also  includes  Solomon,  since  he 
was  versed  in  the  arcane  virtues  and  properties  of 
all  substances,  and  is  said  to  have  understood  the 
nature  of  every  plant,  from  the  cedar  to  the  hyssop. 
Magicians  who  are  proficient  in  the  mathematical 
division  construct  marvellous  machines  by  means  of 
their  geometrical  knowledge ;  such  were  the  flying 
dove  of  Archytas,  and  the  brazen  heads  of  Roger 
Bacon  and  Albertus  Magnus,  which  are  said  to  have 


192  WITCH,  WARLOCK,   AND  MAGICIAN.        [BOOK   I. 

spoken.  Venefic  magic  is  familiar  with  potions, 
philtres,  and  with  the  various  preparations  of  poisons; 
it  is,  in  a  measure,  included  in  the  natural  division, 
because  a  knowledge  of  the  properties  of  natural 
things  is  requisite  to  produce  its  results.  Necromantic 
magic  is  divided  into  Goetic,  maleficent,  and  theurgic. 
The  first  consists  in  diabolical  commerce  with  un- 
clean spirits,  in  rites  of  criminal  curiosity,  in  illicit 
songs  and  invocations,  and  in  the  invocation  of  the 
souls  of  the  dead.  The  second  is  the  adjuration  of 
the  devils  by  the  virtue  of  Divine  names.  The  third 
pretends  to  be  governed  by  good  angels  and  the 
Divine  will,  but  its  wonders  are  most  frequently 
performed  by  evil  spirits,  who  assume  the  names  of 
God  and  of  the  angels.  This  department  of  necro- 
mancy can,  however,  be  performed  by  natural  powers, 
definite  rites  and  ceremonies,  whereby  celestial  and 
Divine  virtues  are  reconciled  and  drawn  to  us  ;  the 
ancient  Magi  formulated  in  their  secret  books  many 
rules  of  this  doctrine.  The  last  species  of  magic  is 
the  thaumaturgic,  begetting  illusory  phenomena  ;  by 
this  art  the  Magi  produced  their  phantasms  and  other 
marvels/ 

The  Creation. — c  According  to  Fludd's  philosophy/ 
says  Mr.  Waite,  '  the  whole  universe  was  fashioned 
after  the  pattern  of  an  archetypal  world  which  existed 
in  the  Divine  ideality,  and  was  framed  out  of  unity 
in  a  threefold  manner.  The  Eternal  Monad  or  Unity, 
without  any  regression  from  His  own  central  pro- 
fundity, compasses  complicity  the  three  cosmical 
dimensions,  namely,  root,  square,  and  cube.  If  we 


CHAP.   VI.]  ENGLISH    KOSICRUCIANS.  193 

multiply  unity  as  a  root,  in  itself,  it  will  produce 
only  unity  for  its  square,  which  being  again  multi- 
plied in  itself,  brings  forth  a  cube,  which  is  one  with 
root  and  square.  Thus  we  have  three  branches 
differing  in  formal  progression,  yet  one  unity  in 
which  all  things  remain  potentially,  and  that  after  a 
most  abstruse  manner.  The  archetypal  world  was 
made  by  the  egression  of  one  out  of  one,  and  by  the 
regression  of  that  one,  so  emitted  into  itself  b}r 
•emanation.  According  to  this  ideal  image,  or 
archetypal  world,  our  universe  was  subsequently 
fashioned  as  a  true  type  and  exemplar  of  the  Divine 
Pattern  ;  for  out  of  unity  in  His  abstract  existence, 
viz.,  as  it  was  hidden  in  the  dark  chaos,  or  potential 
mass,  the  bright  flame  of  all  formal  being  did  shine 
forth,  and  the  spirit  of  wisdom,  proceeding  from 
them  both,  conjoined  the  formal  emanation  with  the 
potential  matter,  so  that  by  the  union  of  the  divine 
emanation  of  light,  and  the  substantial  darkness, 
which  was  water,  the  heavens  were  made  of  old,  and 
the  whole  world.'* 

THOMAS    VAUGHAN. 

Another  English  Rosicrucian  to  whom  allusion 
must  briefly  be  made  is  Thomas  Yaughan,  who  in 
his  writings  assumes  the  more  classical  appellation  of 
Eugenius  Philalethes  ('truth-lover'),  and  in  his 
travels  was  known  as  Carnobius  in  Holland,  and 
Doctor  Zheil  in  America.  He  was  born  about 
1612  ;  .was  educated  at  Oxford  ;  wandered  afterwards 
*  Waite,  '  History  of  the  Rosicrucian s,'  p.  385. 

18 


194  WITCH,  WARLOCK,  AND  MAGICIAN.         [BOOK  I. 

through  many  countries  ;  embraced  the  delusions  of 
alchemy  and  the  Kosy  Cross ;  accreted  round  his  per- 
sonality a  number  of  wild  and  extravagant  stories;  and 
finally  disappeared  into  such  complete  oblivion  that 
the  time  and  place  of  his  death  are  alike  unknown. 

The  writings  attributed  to  him  are  :  1.  i  Anthro- 
posophia  Magica  ;  or,  A  Discourse  of  the  Nature  of 
Man  and  his  State  after  Death  ; '  and  '  Anima 
Magica  Abscondita ;  or,  A  Discourse  of  the  Univer- 
sal! Spirit  of  Nature/  London,  1650.  2.  '  Magia 
Adamica  ;  or,  The  Antiquities  of  Magic,'  same  place 
and  date.  3.  '  The  Man-Mouse  taken  in  a  Trap  ;* 
a  reply  to  Henry  More,  who  had  criticised  his 
4  Anthroposophia  Magica.'  4.  '  Lumen  de  Lumine  ; 
or,  A  New  Magicall  Light  discovered  and  communi- 
cated to  the  World/  London,  1651.  5.  '  The  Second 
Wash  ;  or,  The  Moor  Scoured  Once  More,  being  a 
charitable  Cure  for  the  Distractions  of  Abazonomastix  ' 
[Henry  More],  London,  1651.  6.  'The  Fame  and 
Confession  of  the  Fraternity  of  R.  C.,  with  a  Preface 
annexed  thereto,  and  a  short  declaration  of  their 
physicall  work/ London,  1652.  7.  'Euphrates;  or, 
The  Waters  of  the  East,  being  a  Short  Discourse  of 
that  Great  Fountain  whose  water  flows  from  Fire, 
and  carries  in  it  the  beams  of  the  Sun  and  Moon/ 
London,  1656.  8.  '  A  Brief  Natural  History/  Lon- 
don, 1669.  And  9.  '  Introitus  Apertus  ad  Occlu- 
surn  Regis  Palatium.  Philalethse  Tractatus  Tres  : 
i.  Metallorum  Metamorphosis  ;  ii.  Brevis  Manductio 
ad  Rubrium  Coelestem  ;  iii.  Fons  Chymicae  Yeritatis/ 
London,  1678. 


CHAP.  VI.]  THOMAS    VAUGHAN.  195 

Yaughan  seems  to  have  led  a  wandering  life,  and 
to  have  fallen  '  often  into  great  perplexities  and 
dangers  from  the  mere  suspicion  that  he  possessed 
extraordinary  secrets.'  The  suspicion,  I  should  say, 
was  abundantly  justified,  since  he  made  gold  at  will, 
and  knew  the  composition  of  the  wonderful  elixir  ! 
On  one  occasion,  he  tells  us,  he  went  to  a  goldsmith, 
desiring  to  sell  him  twelve  hundred  marks'  worth  of 
gold  ;  but  the  goldsmith  at  first  sight  pronounced 
that  it  had  never  come  out  of  any  mine,  but  was  the 
production  of  art,  seeing  that  it  was  not  of  the 
standard  of  any  known  kingdom.  Yaughan  adds 
that  he  was  so  confounded  at  this  statement — though, 
surely,  he  must  have  expected  it — that  he  at  once 
departed,  leaving  the  gold  behind  him.  But  the 
strangest  part  of  his  history  is,  that  a  writer  in  1749 
speaks  of  him  as  living  then,  at  the  respectable  old 
age  of  137.  i  A  person  of  great  credit  at  Nuremberg, 
in  Germany,  affirms  that  he  conversed  with  him  but 
a  year  or  two  ago.  Nay,  it  is  further  asserted  that 
this  very  individual  is  the  president  of  the  Illum- 
inated in  Europe,  and  that  he  sits  as  such  in  all  their 
annual  meetings.'  Mayhap  he  is  sitting  at  them 
still  !  Only  if  he  have  discovered,  not  only  the  secret 
of  the  transmutation  of  metals,  but  that  of  the  inde- 
finite prolongation  of  life,  is  it  not  cruelly  selfish  of 
him  to  withhold  it — we  will  not  say  from  the  world 
at  large,  which  deserves  to  be  punished  for  its 
scepticism  and  incredulity,  but  from  the  members 
of  his  own  fraternity  ? 

13—2 


196  WITCH,  WARLOCK,  AND  MAGICIAN.         [BOOK  I. 

JOHN    HEYDON. 

The  English  Rosicrucians  are  few  in  number — ran 
gurgite  in  vasto  nantes — and  when  I  have  added  John 
Heydon  to  Vaughan  arid  Fludd,  I  shall  have  named 
the  most  distinguished.  Heydon  was  the  author  of 
{  The  Wise  Man's  Crown ;  or,  The  Glory  of  the  Rosie 
Cross'  (1664);  '  The  Holy  Guide,  leading  the  Way 
to  Unite  Art  and  Nature,  with  the  Rosie  Cross  Un- 
covered '  (1662) ;  and  '  A  New  Method  of  Rosicrucian 
Physic;  by  John  Heydon,  the  Servant  of  God  and 
the  Secretary  of  Nature  '  (1658).  In  the  last-named 
he  describes  himself  as  an  attorney — who  will  not  pity 
his  clients,  if  he  had  any  ? — practising  at  Westminster 
Hall  all  term  times  as  long  as  he  lived,  and  in  the 
vacations  devoting  himself  to  alchemical  and  Rosi- 
crucian speculation.  His  introduction  ('  An  Apologue 
for  an  Epilogue ')  is  full  of  such  outrageous  non- 
sense as  to  suggest  suspicion  of  his  sanity.  He 
speaks  of  Moses,  Elias,  and  Ezekiel  as  the  prophets 
and  founders  of  Rosicrucianism.  Its  present  believers, 
he  says,  may  be  few  in  number,  but  their  position  is 
incomparably  glorious.  They  are  the  eyes  and  ears 
of  the  great  King  of  the  universe,  seeing  all  things 
and  hearing  all  things ;  they  are  seraphically  illumin- 
ated ;  they  belong  to  the  holy  company  of  em- 
bodied souls  and  immortal  angels ;  they  can  assume 
any  shape  at  will,  and  possess  the  power  of  working 
miracles.  They  can  walk  in  the  air,  banish  epidemics 
from  stricken  cities,  pacify  the  most  violent  storms, 
heal  every  disease,  and  turn  all  metals  into  gold. 


CHAP.  VI. 


JOHN    HEYDON.  197 


He  had  known,  he  says,  two  illustrious  brethren, 
named  Williams  and  Walford,  and  had  seen  them  per- 
form miracles — a  statement  which  brands  him  either 
as  a  knave  or  a  dupe.  'I  desired  one  of  them  to  tell 
me/  he  says,  '  whether  my  complexion  were  capable 
of  the  society  of  my  good  genius.  "  When  I  see  you 
again,"  said  he  (which  was  when  he  pleased  to  come 
to  me,  for  I  knew  not  where  to  go  to  him),  "  I  will 
tell  you."  When  I  saw  him  afterwards,  he  said: 
"  You  should  pray  to  God :  for  a  good  and  holy  man 
can  offer  no  greater  or  more  acceptable  service  to 
God  than  the  oblation  of  himself — his  soul."  Pie  said 
also,  that  the  good  genii  were  the  benign  eyes  of  God, 
running  to  and  fro  in  the  world,  and  with  love  and 
pity  beholding  the  innocent  endeavours  of  harmless 
and  single-hearted  men,  ever  ready  to  do  them  good 
and  to  help  them.' 

Heydon  advocated,  without  enforcing  his  precepts 
by  example,  the  Rosicrucian  dogma,  that  men  could 
live  without  eating  and  drinking,  affirming  that  all 
of  us  could  exist  in  the  same  manner  as  the  singular 
people  dwelling  near  the  source  of  the  Ganges, 
described  by  his  namesake,  Sir  Christopher  Heydon* 
(but  certainly  by  no  other  traveller),  who  had  no 
mouths,  and  therefore  could  not  eat,  but  lived  by  the 
breath  of  their  nostrils — except  when  they  went  on  a 
far  journey,  and  then,  to  recuperate  their  strength,  they 
inhaled  the  scent  of  flowers.  He  dilated  on  the  '  fine 
foreign  fatness'  which  characterized  really  pure  air — the 

*  Author  of  'A  Defence  of  Judiciall  Astrologie,'  printed  at 
Cambridge  in  1603. 


1CJ8  WITCH,  WARLOCK,   AND  MAGICIAN.        [BOOK  I. 

air  being  impregnated  with  it  by  the  sunbeams — and 
affirmed  that  it  should  suffice  for  the  nourishment  of 
the  majority  of  mankind.  He  was  not  unwilling, 
however,  that  people  with  gross  appetites  should  eat 
animal  food,  but  declared  it  to  be  unnecessary  for 
them,  and  that  a  much  more  efficacious  mode  would 
be  to  use  the  meat,  nicely  cooked,  as  a  plaster  on  the 
pit  of  the  stomach.  By  adopting  this  external  treat- 
ment, they  would  incur  no  risk  of  introducing 
diseases,  as  they  did  by  the  broad  and  open  gate  of 
the  mouth,  as  anyone  might  see  by  the  example  of 
drink ;  for  so  long  as  a  man  sat  in  water,  he  knew 
no  thirst.  He  had  been  acquainted — so  he  declared 
— with  many  Eosicrucians  who,  by  using  wine  as  a 
bath,  had  fasted  from  solid  food  for  several  years. 
And,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  one  might  fast  all  one's  life, 
though  prolonged  for  300  years,  if  one  ate  no  meat, 
and  so  avoided  all  risk  of  infection  by  disease. 

Growing  confidential  in  reference  to  his  imaginary 
fraternity,  he  states  that  its  chiefs  always  carried 
about  with  them  their  symbol,  the  R.C.,  an  ebony 
cross,  flourished  and  decked  with  roses  of  gold ;  the 
cross  typifying  Christ's  suffering  for  the  sins  of  man- 
kind, and  the  golden  roses  the  glory  and  beauty  of  His 
Eesurrection.  This  symbol  was  carried  in  succession 
to  Mecca,  Mount  Calvary,  Mount  Sinai,  Haran,  and 
three  other  places,  which  I  cannot  pretend  to  identify 
— Casele,  Apamia,  and  Chaulateau  Yiciosa  Caunuch  : 
these  were  the  meeting-places  of  the  brotherhood. 

i  The  Rosie  Crucian  Physick  or  Medicines,'  says 
this  bravely-mendacious  gentleman,  '  I  happily  and 


CHAP.  VI.]  JOHN    HEYDON.  199 

unexpectedly  light  upon  in  Arabia,  which  will 
prove  a  restoration  of  health  to  all  that  are  afflicted 
with  sickness  which  we  ordinarily  call  natural, 
and  all  other  diseases.  These  men  have  no  small 
insight  into  the  body :  Walford,  Williams,  and 
others  of  the  Fraternity  now  living,  may  bear  up  in 
the  same  likely  equipage  with  those  noble  Divine 
Spirits  their  Predecessors ;  though  the  unskilfulness 
in  men  commonly  acknowledges  more  of  supernatural 
assistance  in  hot,  unsettled  fancies,  and  perplexed 
melancholy,  than  in  the  calm  and  distinct  use  of 
reason;  yet,  for  mine  own  part,  I  look  upon  these 
Rosie  Crucians  above  all  men  truly  inspired,  and 
more  than  any  that  professed  themselves  so  this 
sixteen  hundred  years,  and  I  am  ravished  with  admi- 
ration of  their  miracles  and  trans cendant  mechanical 
inventions,  for  the  solving  the  Phenomenon  of  the 
world.  I  may,  without  offence,  therefore,  compare 
them  with  Bezaliel,  Aholiab,  those  skilful  workers  of 
the  Tabernacle,  who,  as  Moses  testifies,  were  filled 
with  the  Spirit  of  God,  and  therefore  were  of  an  ex- 
cellent understanding  to  find  out  all  manner  of 
curious  work/ 

The  plain  fact  is  that  Hey  don's  books  are  fictions — 
purely  imaginative  work,  based  on  some  rough  and 
ready  knowledge  of  the  old  alchemy  and  the  new 
magic ;  partly  allegorical  and  mystical,  such  as  a 
quick  invention  might  readily  conceive  under  the 
influence  of  theosophic  study,  and  partly  borrowed 
from  Henry  More,  and  other  writers  of  the  same 
stamp.  The  island  inhabited  by  Rosicrucians,  which 
he  describes  in  the  introduction  to  c  The  Holy  Guide/ 


200  WITCH,  WARLOCK,  AND  MAGICIAN.        [BOOK  I 

was  evidently  suggested  by  Sir  Thomas  More's 
'  Utopia,'  and  Bacon's  '  New  Atlantis.'  It  would  be 
easy  to  point  out  his  obligations  elsewhere. 

I  may  add,  in  bringing  this  chapter  to  a  close,  that 
Dr.  Edmund  Dickenson,  one  of  Charles  II. 's  physi- 
cians, professed  to  be  a  member  of  the  brotherhood, 
and  wrote  a  book  upon  one  of  their  supposed 
doctrines,  entitled  '  De  Quinta  Essentia  Philoso- 
phoruni,'  which  was  printed  at  Oxford  in  1686. 

Whatever  may  be  our  opinion  of  Eosicrucianism, 
which,  I  believe,  still  finds  some  believers  and  adepts 
in  this  country,  we  must  acknowledge  that  the  litera- 
ture of  poetry,  and  fiction  is  indebted  to  it  consider- 
ably. The  machinery  of  Pope's  exquisite  poem, 
'  The  Rape  of  the  Lock,'  was  borrowed  from  Para- 
celsus and  Jacob  Bohmen — not  directly,  it  is  true, 
but  through  the  medium  of  the  Abbe  de  Yillars' 
sparkling  romance,  '  Le  Comte  de  Gabalis.'  '  Accord- 
ing to  those  gentlemen,'  says  Pope,  '  the  four  elements 
are  inhabited  by  spirits,  which  they  call  sylphs, 
gnomes,  nymphs,  and  salamanders.' 

The  Rosicrucian  water-nymph  supplied  La  Motte 
Fouque  with  the  idea  of  that  graceful  and  lovely 
creation,  '  Undine,'  and  Sir  Walter  Scott  has  invested 
his  '  White  Lady  of  Avenel '  with  some  of  her  attri- 
butes. 

William  Godwin's  romance  of '  St.  Leon '  turns  on 
the  Rosicrucian  fancy  of  immortal  life  ;  while  Lord 
Lytton's  i  Zanoni '  is  practically  a  Rosicrucian  fiction. 
The  influence  of  the  Rosicrucian  writers  is  also  appa- 
rent in  the  same  author's  '  A  Strange  Story.' 


BOOK    II. 

WITCHES  AND  WITCHCRAFT. 


CHAP.  I.]        EARLY  HISTORY  OF  WITCHCRAFT.  203 


CHAPTER  I. 

EARLY   HISTORY    OF    WITCHCRAFT   IN   ENGLAND. 


To  various  conspicuous  and  easily  intelligible  causes  \ 
the  witch  and  the  warlock,  like  the  necromancer  and 
the  astrologer,  owed  their  power  with  the  multitude. 
First,  there  was  the  eager  desire  which  humanity  not 
unnaturally  feels  to  tear  aside  the  veil  of  Isis,  and 
obtain  some  knowledge  of  that  Other  World  which  is 
hidden  so  completely  from  it.  Next  must  be  taken 
into  account  man's  greed  for  temporal  advantages, 
his  anxiety  to  direct  the  course  of  events  to  his 
personal  benefit;  a^fcl,  lastly,  his  malice  against  his 
fellows.  Thus  we  see  that  the  influence  enjoyed  by 
the  sorcerer  and  the  magician  had  its  origin  in  the 
unlawful  passions  of  humanity,  in  whose  history  the 
pages  that  treat  of  witches  and  witchcraft  are  painful  j 
and  humiliating  reading. 

To  define  the  limit  between  the  special  functions  of 
the  magician  and  the  witch  is  somewhat  difficult, 
more  especially  as  the  position  of  the  witch  gradually 
decreased  in  reputation  and  importance.  There  is  a 
great  gulf  between  the  witch  of  Endor,  or  the  witch 
of  classical  antiquity,  or  the  witch  of  the  Norse  Sagas, 


204  WITCH,  WARLOCK,  AND  MAGICIAN.         [BOOK  II. 

or  the  witch  of  the  Saxons,  and  the  English  or 
Scottish  witch  of  the  sixteenth  and  seventeenth  cen- 
turies. The  former  were  surrounded  with  an  atmo- 
sphere of  dread  and  mystery ;  the  latter  was  the 
creature  of  vulgar  and  commonplace  traditions.  In 
the  early  age  of  witchcraft,  the  witch,  like  the  magi- 
cian, summoned  spirits  from  the  vasty  deep,  dis- 
covered the  hiding-places  of  concealed  treasures, 
struck  down  men  or  beasts  by  her  spells,  or  covered 
the  heavens  with  clouds  and  let  loose  the  winds  of 
destruction  and  desolation.  Both  could  blight  the 
promise  of  the  harvest,  baffle  the  plans  of  their 
enemies,  or  wither  the  health  of  their  victims.  But 
while  the  magician  was  frequently  a  man  of  ability 
and  learning,  and  belonged  to  the  cultured  classes, 
Vthe  witch  was  almost  always  a  woman  of  the  lower 
orders,  ignorant  and  uneducated,  though  occasionally 
ladies  of  high  rank,  and  even  ecclesiastics,  have  been 
accused  of  practising  withcraffo 

[While  witchcraft  was  a  power  in  the  land,  the 
witch,  or  warlock,  was  popularly  supposed  to  be  the 
direct  instrument,  and,  indeed,  the  bond-slave,  of  the 
Evil  One,  fulfilling  his  behests  in  virtue  of  a  com- 
pact, written  in  letters  of  blood,  by  which  the  witch 
made  over  her  soul  to  the  Infernal  Power  in  return 
for  the  enjoyment  of  supernatural  prerogatives  for  a 
fixed  period.  This  treaty  having  been  concluded, 
the  witch  received  a  mark  on  some  part  of  the  body, 
which  was  thenceforward  insensible  of  pain — the 
stigma  or  devil's  mark,  by  which  he  might  know  his 
own  again.  A  familiar  imp  or  spirit  was  assigned  to 


CHAP.  I.]  EARLY  HISTORY  OF  WITCHCRAFT.  205 

her,  generally  in  the  form  of  an  animal,  and  more 
particularly  in  that  of  a  black  cat  or  dog.^  Round 
this  general  idea  were  gathered  a  iiumbef~of  horrible 
and  unclean  conceptions,  onjvhich,  happily,  it  will  not 
be  necessary  to  enlarge.  ,'  The  devil,  it  was  said,  .re- 
sorted to  carnal  communication  with  his  servants, 
being  denominated  succubus  when, the  favourite  was 
a  female,  and  incubus  when  a  male  was  chosen.  It 
was  alleged,  too,  that  on  certain  occasions  the  devil, 
with  his  familiars,  and  the  great  company  of  witches 
and  warlocks  whose  souls  he  had  bought,  assembled 
in  -  the  dead  of  night  in  some  remote  and  savage 
wilderness,  to  hold  that  frightful  carnival  of  the 
Witches'  Sabbat  jwhich  Goethe  has  depicted  so  power- 
fully in  the  second  part  of  '  Faust.'  ^The  human 
imagination  has  not  invented,  I  thinlcT^my  scene 
more  horrible,  more  degrading,  or  more  bestial.  We 
may  suppose,  however,  that  it  was  not  conceived  by 
any  single  mind,  or  even  people,  or  in  any  single 
generation,  but  that  it  gradually  took  up  additional 
details  from  different  nations,  at  different  times,  until 
it  was  developed  into  the  terrible  whole  presented  by 
the  medieval  writers.  ! 

This  wild  and  awful  revel  was  called  the  Sabbat 
because  it  took  place  after  midnight  on  Friday ;  that 
is,  on  the  Jewish  Sabbath — a  curious  illustration  of 
the  popular  antipathy  against  the  Jews. 

The  spot  where  it  was  held  never  bloomed  again 
with  flower  or  herb  ;  the  burning  feet  of  the  demons 
blighted  it  for  ever. 

Witch  or  warlock  who  failed  to  obey  the  summons 

J 


206  WITCH,  WARLOCK,  AND  MAGICIAN.       [BOOK  II. 

of  the  master  was  lashed  by  devils  with  rods  made  of 
scorpions  or  serpents,  in  chastisement  of  his  or  her 
contumacy.! 

The  guests  repaired  thither,  according  to  the  belief 
entertained  in  France  and  England,  upon  broom- 
sticks ;  but  in  Spain  and  Italy  it  was  thought  that 
the  devil  himself,  in  the  shape  of  a  goat,  conveyed 
them  on  his  back,  which  he  contracted  or  elongated 
according  to  the  number  he  carried.  The  witch, 
when  starting  on  her  aerial  journey,  would  not  quit 
her  house  by  door  or  window ;  but  astride  on  her 
broomstick  made  her  exit  by  the  chimney.  During  her 
absence,  to  prevent  the  suspicions  of  her  neighbours 
from  being  aroused,  an  inferior  demon  assumed  the 
semblance  of  her  person,  and  lay  in  her  bed,  pre- 
tenjding  to  be  ill  or  asleep. 

[A    curious    story  may    here    be   introduced.      In 
April,  1611,  a  Provencal  cure,  named  Gaurifidi,  was 

V  \      \s 

accused  of  sorcery  before  the  Parliament  of  Aix.  In 
the  course  of  trial  much  was  said  in  proof  of  the 
power  of  the  demons.  Several  witnesses  asserted 
that  Gaurifidi,  after  rubbing  himself  with  a  magic 
oil,  repaired  to  the  Sabbat,  and  afterwards  returned 
to  his  chamber  down  the  chimney.  One  day,  when 
this  sort  of  thing  was  exciting  the  imagination  of  the 
judges,  an  extraordinary  noise  was  heard  in  the 
chimney  of  the  hall,  terminating  suddenly  in  the 
apparition  of  a  tall  black  man,  who  shook  his  head 
vigorously.  The  judges,  thinking  the  devil  had 
come  in  person  to  the  rescue  of  his  servant,  took  to 
their  heels,  with  the  exception  of  one  Thorm,  the 


CHAP.  I.]         EARLY  HISTORY  OF  WITCHCRAFT.  207 

reporter,  who  was  so  hemmed  in  by  his  desk  that  he 
was  unable  to  move.  Terror-stricken  at  the  sight  before 
him,  with  his  body  all  of  a  tremble,  and  his  eyes 
starting  from  his  head,  he  made  repeated  signs  of  the 
cross,  until  the  supposed  fiend  was  equally  alarmed, 
since  he  could  not  understand  the  cause  of  the 
reporter's  evident  perturbation.  On  recovering  from 
his  embarrassment  he  made  himself  known  —  he 
was  a  sweep,  who  had  been  operating  on  a  chimney 
on  the  roof  above,  but,  when  ready  to  return,  had 
mistaken  the  entrance,  and  thus  unwillingly  intruded 
himself  into  the  chamber  of  the  Parliament.  ~j 

The  unclean  ceremonies  of  the    Witches'   Sabbat 
were  '  inaugurated '  by  Satan, ~| who,  in  his  favourite 
assumption   of    a    huge   he-goat    (a   suggestion,   no 
doubt,  from  Biblical  imagery),  with  one  face  in  front, 
and   another  between  his  haunches,  took  his  place 
upon  his  throne.     After  all  present  had  done  homage 
by  kissing  him  on  the  posterior  face,  he  appointed  a 
master  of  the  ceremonies,  and,  attended  by  him,  mad 
a  personal  examination  of  any  guest  to  ascertain  if  I 
or  she  bore  the  stigma,  which  indicated  his  right  if 
ownership.     Any  who  were  found  without  it  received 
the  mark  at  once  from  the  master  of  the  ceremonie  , 
while    the    devil    bestowed    on    them    a   nickname 
Thereafter  all  began  to   dance  and  sing  with  wild 
extravagance— 

'  There  is  no  rest  to-night  for  anyone  : 
When  one  dance  ends  another  is  begun  ' — 

until  some  neophyte  arrived,  and  sought  admission 
into  the  circle  of  the  initiated.  Silence  prevailed 


208  WITCH,  WARLOCK,  AND  MAGICIAN.       [BOOK  II. 

while  thejiewcomer^went  through  the  usual  formjif 
denying  her  salvation,  spitting  upon  the  Bible^kissing 
the  devil,  and  jwearmg^obedience  to  him  jn^jjjjjmigs^ 
The  dancing  then  renewed  its  fury,  and  a  hoarse  chorus 

went  up  of — 

1  Alegremos,  alegremos, 
Que  gente  va  tenemos  !' 

When  spent  with  Ae__yiolenj^jexercise,  they  sat 
jown,  and,  like  the  witches^jn/ Macbeth/  related 
the  evil  things  each  had  done  since  the  last  Sabbat^ 
those  who  had  not  been  sufficiently  active  being 
chastised  by  Satan  himself  until  they  were  drenched 
in  blood.  A  dance  of  toads  was  the  next  entertain- 
ment. They  sprang  up  out  of  the  earth  by  thousands, 
and  danced  on  their  hind-legs  while  Satan  played  on 
the  bagpipes  or  the  trumpet,  after  which  they  solicited 
the  witches  to  reward  them  for  their  exertions  by 
feeding  them  with  the  flesh  of  unbaptized  babes.  Was 
there  ever  a  more  curious  mixture  of  the  grotesque 
and  the  horrible?  At  a  stamp  from  the  devil's  foot 
they  returned  to  the  earth  whence  they  came,  and  a 
banquet  was  served  up,  the  nature  of  which  the  reader 
may  be  left  to  imagine!  Dancing  was  afterwards 
resumed,  while  those  who  had  no  partiality  for  the 
pastime  found  amusement  in  burlesquing  the  sacra- 
ment of  baptism,  the  toads  being  again  summoned 
and  sprinkled  with  holy  water,  while  the  devil  made 
the  sign  of  the  cross,  and  the  witches  cried  out  in 
chorus :  4  In  nomine  Patrica,  Aragueaco  Patrica, 
agora,  agora!  Yalentia,  jurando  gome  guito  goustia  !' 
that  is,  '  In  the  name  of  Patrick,  Patrick  of  Aragon 
now,  now,  all  our  ills  are  over!' 


CHAP.  I.]         EARLY  HISTORY  OF  WITCHCRAFT.  209 

Sometimes  the  devil  would  cause  the  witches  to 
strip  themselves,  and  dance  before  him  in  their 
nakedness,  each  with  a  cat  tied  round  her  neck,  and 
another  suspended  from  her  body  like  a  tail.  At 
cockcrow  the  whole  phantasmagoria  vanished. 

One  cannot  help  wondering  who  first  conceived 
the  idea  of  these  horrid  saturnalia.  Did  it  spring 
from  the  diseased  imagination  of  some  half-mad  monk, 
brooding  in  the  solitude  of  his  silent  cell,  who 
gathered  up  all  these  unclean  and  grim  images  and 
worked  them  into  so  ghastly  a  picture?  They  are 
partly  heathen,  partly  Christian ;  partly  classical, 
partly  Teutonic — a  strange  and  unwholesome  com- 
pound, as  '  thick  and  slab '  as  the  hell-broth  mixed  by 
the  hags  on  '  the  blasted  heath ' ! 

In  these  pages  I  am  concerned  only  with  our  own 
'  tight  little  island,'  into  which  the  superstition  was 
most  certainly  introduced  by  the  northern  invaders. 
It  would  derive  strength  and  consistency  from  the 
teaching  of  the  Old  Testament,  which  distinctly 
recognises  the  existence  of  witchcraft.  'Let  not  a 
witch  live !'  is  the  command  given  in  Exodus 
(chapter  xxii.)  ;  and  similar  threats  against  witches, 
wizards  and  the  like  frequently  occur  in  the  books 
of  Leviticus  and  Deuteronomy.  Says  Sir  William 
Blackstone :  '  To  deny  the  possibility,  nay,  the  actual 
existence  of  witchcraft  and  sorcery,  is  at  once  flatly 
to  contradict  the  revealed  Word  of  God  in  vario.us 
passages  of  the  Old  and  New  Testaments,  and  the 
thing  itself  is  a  truth  to  which  every  nation  in  the 
world  hath,  in  its  turn,  borne  testimony,  either  by 

14 


WITCH,  WABLOCK,  AND  MAGICIAN.       [BOOK  II. 

example  seemingly  well  attested,  or  by  prohibitory 
laws,  which  at  least  suppose  the  possibility  of  a 
commerce  with  evil  spirits.'  The  Church  at  a  very 
early  period  admitted  its  existence,  and  fulminated 
against  all  who  practised  it.  The  fourth  canon  of  the 
Council  of  Auxerre,  in  525,  stringently  prohibited  all 
resort  to  sorcerers,  diviners,  augurs,  and  the  like.  A 
canon  of  the  Council  held  at  Berkhampstead  in  696 
condemned  to  corporal  punishment,  or  mulcted  in  a 
fine,  every  person  who  made  sacrifices  to  the  evil 
spirits.  Under  the  name  of  sortilegium,  the  offence 
was  treated  eventually  as  a  kind  of  heresy,  for  which, 
on  the  first  occasion,  the  offender,  if  penitent,  was 
punished  by  the  Ecclesiastical  Courts ;  but  if  there 
were  no  abjuration,  or  a  relapse  after  abjuration,  she 
was  handed  over  to  the  secular  power  to  be  executed 
by  authority  of  the  writ  de  heretico  comburendo.  At  a 
later  date,  statutes  against  witchcraft  were  enacted 
by  Parliament,  and  the  offence  was  both  tried  and 
punished  by  the  civil  power.  Such  statutes  were 
passed  in  the  reigns  of  Henry  YIIL,  Elizabeth,  and 
James  I.  Legislation  derives  its  chief  support  from 
public  opinion  ;  and  these  statutes  are  a  proof  that 
the  existence  of  witchcraft  was  generally  believed  in. 
iFor  centuries  in  this  country,'  says  Mr.  Inderwick, 

1"  •  .. 

4  strange  as  it  may  now  appear,  a  denial  of  the  exist- 
ence of  such  demoniacal  agency  was  deemed  equal  to 
a  confession  of  atheism,  and  to  a  disbelief  in  the 
Holy  Scriptures  themselves.  Not  only  did  Lord 
Chancellors,  Lord  Keepers,  benches  of  Bishops,  and 
Parliament  after  Parliament  attest  the  truth  and  the 


CHAP.  I.J         EARLY  HISTORY  OF  WITCHCRAFT.  211 

existence  of  witchcraft,  but  Addison,  writing  as  late 
as  1711,  in  the  pages  of  the  Spectator,  after  describing 
himself  as  hardly  pressed  by  the  arguments  on  both 
sides  of  this  question,  expresses  his  own  belief  that 
there  is,  and  has  been,  witchcraft  in  the  land.'  At 
the  same  time,  it  is  pleasant  to  remember  that  there 
have  almost  always  been  a  few  minds,  bolder  and  more 
enlightened  than  the  rest,  to  protest  against  a  credulity 
which  led  to  acts  of  the  greatest  inhumanity,  and 
fostered  a  grotesque  and  dangerous  superstition. 
"It  is  in  the  twelfth  century  that  we  first  obtain,  in 
England,  any  distinct  indications  of  the  nature  o 
this  superstition,  and  it  is  then  we  first  meet  with 
the  written  compact  between  the  devil  and  his  victim 
The  story  of  the  old  woman  of  Berkeley,  with  which 
Southey's  ballad  has  made  everybody  familiar,  is 
related  by  William  of  Malniesbury,  on  the  authority 
of  a  friend  who  professed  to  have  been  an  eye-witness 
of  the  facts.  When  the  devil,  we  read,  announced  to 
the  witch  that  the  term  of  her  compact  had  nearly 
expired,  she  summoned  to  her  presence  the  monks  of 
the  neighbouring  monastery  and  her  children,  con- 
fessed her  sins,  acknowledged  her  criminal  compact, 
and  displayed  a  curious  anxiety  lest  Satan  should 
secure  her  body  as  well  as  her  soul.  '  Sew  me  in  a 
stag's  hide/  she  said,  '  and,  placing  me  in  a  stone 
coffin,  shut  me  in  with  lead  and  iron.  Load  this 
with  a  heavy  stone,  and  fasten  down  the  whole  with 
three  iron  chains.  Let  fifty  psalms  be  sung  by  night, 
and  fifty  masses  be  said  by  day,  to  baffle  the  power 
of  the  demons,  and  if  you  can  thus  protect  my  body 

14—2 


212  WITCH,  WARLOCK,  AND  MAGICIAN.       [BOOK  II. 

for  three  nights,  on  the  fourth  day  you  may  safely 
bury  it  in  the  ground.'     These  precautions,  though 
religiously  observed,  proved  ineffectual.     On  the  first 
night  the  monks  bravely  resisted  the  efforts  of  the 
fiends,  who,  however,  on  the  second  night,  renewed 
the  attack  with  increased  vehemence,  burst  open  the 
gates  of  the  monastery,  and  rent  asunder  two  of  the 
chains  which  held  down  the  coffin.     On  the  third 
night,    so   terrible   was    the    hurly-burly,   that    the 
monastery  shook  to  its  foundations,  and  the  terror- 
stricken  priests  paused,  aghast,  in  the  midst  of  their 
ministrations.     Then  the  doors  flew  apart,  and  into 
the  sacred  place  stalked  a  demon,  who  rose  head  and 
shoulders  above  his  fellows.     Stopping  at  the  coffin, 
he,  in  a  terrible  voice,  commanded  the  dead  to  rise. 
The  woman  answered   that  she  was  bound  by  the 
third  chain :  whereupon  the  demon  put  his  foot  on  the 
coffin,  the  chain  snapped  like  a  thread,  the  coffin-lid 
fell  off,  the  witch  arose,  and  was  hurried  to  the  church- 
door,  where  the  demon,  mounting  a  huge  black  horse, 
swung  his  victim   on  to  the  crupper,  and  galloped 
away  into  the  darkness  with  the  swiftness  of  an  arrow, 
while  her  shrieks  resounded  through  the  air. 

There  are  many  allusions  in  the  old  monastic 
chronicles  which  illustrate  the  development  of  public 
opinion  in  reference  to  witches  and  their  craft.  Thus, 
John  of  Salisbury  describes  the  nocturnal  assemblies 
of  the  witches,  the  presence  of  Satan,  the  banquet, 
and  the  punishment  or  reward  of  the  guests  according 
to  the  failure  or  abundance  of  their  zeal.  William  of 
Malmesbury  tells  us  that  on  the  highroad  to  Rome 


CHAP.  I.]         EARLY  HISTORY  OF  WITCHCRAFT.  213 

dwelt  a  couple  of  beldams,  of  ill  repute,  who  enticed 
the  weary  traveller  into  their  wretched  hovel,  and  by 
their  incantations  transformed  him  into  a  horse,  a 
dog,  or  some  other  animal — similar  to  the  transforma- 
tions we  read  of  in  Oriental  tales — and  that  this 
animal  they  sold  to  the  first  comer,  in  this  way 
picking  up  a  tolerable  livelihood.;  One  day,  a 
jongleur,  or  mountebank,  asked  for  a  night's  lodging, 
and  when  he  disclosed  his  vocation  to  the  two  hags, 
they  informed  him  that  they  had  an  ass  of  remarkable 
capacity,  which,  indeed,  could  do  everything  but  speak, 
and  that  they  were  willing  to  sell  it.  The  sum  asked 
was  large,  but  the  ass  displayed  such  wonderful  in- 
telligence that  the  jongleur  gladly  paid  it.  and  de- 
parted, taking  with  him  the  ass  and  a  piece  of  advice 
from  the  old  women — not  to  let  the  ass  go  near  run- 
ning water.  For  some  time  all  went  well,  the  ass 
became  an  immense  attraction,  and  the  jongleur  was 
growing  passing  rich,  when,  in  one  of  his  drunken 
fits,  he  allowed  the  animal  to  escape.  Running  directly 
to  the  nearest  stream,  it  plunged  in,  and  immediately 
resumed  its  original  shape  as  a  handsome  young  man, 
who  explained  that  he  had  been  transformed  by  the 
spells  of  the  two  crones. 

The  first  trial  for  witchcraft  in  England  occurred 
in  the  tenth  year  of  King  John,  when,  as  recorded  in 
the  '  Abbreviatio  Placitorum,'  Agnes,  wife  of  Ado  the 
merchant,  accused  one  Gideon  of  the  crime  ;  but  he 
proved  his  innocence  by  the  ordeal  of  Ted-hot  iron. 
The  first  trial  which  has  been  reported  with  any 
degree  of  particularity  belongs  to  the  year  1324. 


214  WITCH,  WARLOCK,  AND  MAGICIAN.       [BOOK  II. 

Some  citizens  of  Coventry,  it  would  appear,  had 
suffered  severely  at  the  hands  of  the  prior,  who  had 
been  supported  in  his  exactions  by  the  two  Despensers, 
Edward  II. 's  unworthy  favourites.  In  revenge,  they 
plotted  the  death  of  the  prior,  the  favourites,  and  the 
King.  For  this  purpose  they  sought  the  assistance 
of  a  famous  magician  of  Coventry,  named  Master 
John  of  Nottingham,  and  his  man,  Robert  Marshall 
of  Leicester.  The  conspiracy  was  revealed  by  the 
said  Robert  Marshall,  probably  because  his  pecuniary 
reward  was  unsatisfactory,  and  he  averred  that  John 
of  Nottingham  and  himself,  having  agreed  to  carry 
out  the  desire  of  the  citizens,  the  latter,  on  Sunday, 
March  13,  brought  an  instalment  of  the  stipulated 
fee,  together  with  seven  pounds  of  wax  and  two 
yards  of  canvas  ;  that  with  this  wax  he  and  his 
master  made  seven  images,  representing  respectively 
the  King  (with  his  crown),  the  two  Despensers,  the 
prior,  his  caterer,  and  his  steward,  and  one  Richard 
de  Lowe — the  last  named  being  introduced  merely 
as  a  lay-figure  on  which  to  test  the  efficacy  of  the 
charm. 

The  two  wizards  retired  to  an  old  ruined  house  at 
Shorteley  Park,  about  half  a  league  from  Coventry, 
where  they  remained  at  work  for  several  days,  and 
about  midnight  on  the  Friday  following  Holy  Cross 
Day,  the  said  Master  John  gave  to  the  said  Robert  a 
sharp-pointed  leaden  branch,  and  commanded  him  to 
insert  it  about  two  inches  deep  in  the  forehead  of  the 
image  representing  Richard  de  Lowe,  this  being 
intended  as  an  experiment.  It  was  done,  and  next 


CHAP.  I.]         EARLY  HISTORY  OF  WITCHCRAFT.  215 

morning  Master  John  sent  his  servant  to  Lowe's 
house  to  inquire  after  his  condition,  who  found  him 
screaming  and  crying  'Harrow!'  He  had  lost  his 
memory,  and  knew  no  one,  and  in  this  state  he  con- 
tinued until  dawn  on  the  Sunday  before  Ascension, 
when  Master  John  withdrew  the  branch  from  the 
forehead  of  the  image  and  thrust  it  into  the  heart. 
There  it  remained  until  the  following  Wednesday, 
when  the  unfortunate  man  expired.  Such  was  Robert 
Marshall's  fable,  as  told  before  the  judges ;  but  ap- 
parently it  met  with  little  credence,  and  the  trial,  after 
several  adjournments,  fell  to  the  ground. 

Wonderful  stories  are  told  by  the  later  chroniclers 
of  a  certain  Eudo  de  Stella,  who  had  acquired  great 
notoriety  as  a  sorcerer.  William  of  Newbury  says 
that  his  '  diabolical  charms '  collected  a  large  com- 
pany of  disciples,  whom  he  carried  with  him  from 
place  to  place,  adding  to  their  number  wherever  he 
stopped.  At  times  he  encamped  in  the  heart  of  a 
wood,  where  sumptuous  tables  were^suddenly  spread 
with  all  kinds  of  dainty  dishes  and  fragrant  wines, 
and  every  wish  breathed  by  the  meanest  guest  was  im- 
mediately fulfilled.  Some  of  Eudo's  followers, however, 
confided  to  our  authority  that  there  was  a  strange 
want  of  solidity  in  these  magically -supplied  viands,  and 
that  though  they  ate  of  them  continually,  they  were 
never  satisfied.  But  it  appears  that  whoever  once 
tasted  of  the  sorcerer's  meats,  or  received  from  him  a 
gift,  thereby  became  enrolled  among  his  followers. 
And  the  chronicler  supplies  this  irrefutable  proof:  A 
knight  of  his  acquaintance  paid  a  visit  to  the  wizard, 


216  WITCH,  WARLOCK,  AND  MAGICIAN.       [BOOK  II. 

and  endeavoured  to  turn  him  from  his  evil  practices. 
When  he  departed,  Eudo  presented  his  squire  with 
a  handsome  hawk,  which  the  knight,  observing, 
advised  him  to  cast  away.  Not  so  the  squire:  he 
rejoiced  in  his  high-mettled  bird ;  but  they  had 
scarcely  got  out  of  sight  of  the  wizard's  camp  before 
the  hawk's  talons  gripped  him  more  and  more 
closely,  and  at  last  it  flew  away  with  him,  and  he  was 
never  more  heard  of. 

The  trial  of  Dame  Alicia  Kyteler,  or  Le  Poer, 
takes  us  across  the  seas,  but  it  furnishes  too  many 
interesting  particulars  to  be  entirely  ignored. 
Hutchinson  informs  .  us  that,  in  1324,  Bishop  de 
Ledrede,  of  Ossory,  in  the  course  of  a  visitation  of 
his  diocese,  came  to  learn  that,  in  the  city  of  Kil- 
kenny, there  had  long  resided  certain  persons 
addicted  to  various  kinds  of  witchcraft ;  and  that  the 
chief  offender  among  them  was  a  Dame  Alicia 
Kyteler.  As  she  was  a  woman  of  considerable 
wealth,  which  might  prove  of  great  benefit  to  the 
Church,  the  episcopal  zeal  blazed  up  strongly,  and 
she  and  her  accomplices  were  ordered  to  be  put  upon 
their  trial. 

The  accusation  against  them  was  divided  into 
seven  distinct  heads : 

First :  That,  in  order  to  give  effect  to  their  sorcery, 
they  were  wont  altogether  to  deny  the  faith  of  Christ 
and  of  the  Church  for  a  year  or  month,  according  as 
the  object  to  be  attained  was  greater  or  less,  so  that 
during  this  longer  or  shorter  period  they  believed  in 
nothing  that  the  Church  believed,  and  abstained  from 


CHAP.  I.]         EARLY  HISTORY  OF  WITCHCRAFT.  217 

worshipping  Christ's  body,  from  entering  a  church, 
from  hearing  Mass,  and  from  participating  in  the 
Sacrament  Second:  That  they  propitiated  the 
demons  with  sacrifices  of  living  animals,  which  they 
tore  limb  from  limb,  and  offered,  by  scattering  them 
in  cross-roads,  to  a  certain  demon,  Robert  Artisson 
(filius  Artis),  who  was  '  one  of  the  poorer  class  of 
hell/  Third:  That  by  their  sorceries  they  sought 
responses  and  oracles  from  demons.  Fourth  :  That 
they  used  the  ceremonies  of  the  Church  in  their 
nocturnal  meetings,  pronouncing,  with  lighted 
candles  of  wax,  sentence  of  excommunication  even 
against  the  persons  of  their  own  husbands,  naming 
expressly  every  member,  from  the  sole  of  the  foot  to 
the  top  of  the  head,  and  at  length  extinguishing  the 
candles  with  the  exclamation,  *  Fi !  fi !  fi !  Amen !' 
Fifth:  That  with  the  intestines  and  other  inner 
parts  of  cocks  sacrificed  to  the  demons,  with  '  certain 
horrible  worms/  various  herbs,  the  nails  of  dead  men, 
the  hair,  brains,  and  clothes  of  children  who  had  died 
unbaptized,  and  other  things  too  disgusting  to 
mention,  boiled  in  the  skull  of  a  certain  robber  who 
had  been  beheaded,  on  a  fire  made  of  oak-sticks, 
they  had  invented  powders  and  ointments,  and  also 
candles  of  fat  boiled  in  the  said  skull,  with  certain 
charms,  which  things  were  to  be  instrumental  in  ex- 
citing love  or  hatred,  and  in  killing  or  torturing  the 
bodies  of  faithful  Christians,  and  for  various  other 
unlawful  purposes.  Sixth:  That  the  sons  and 
daughters  of  the  four  husbands  of  the  same  Dame 
Alice  had  made  their  complaint  to  the  Bishop,  that 


218  WITCH,  WARLOCK,   AND  MAGICFAN.       [BOOK  II. 

she,  by  such  sorcery,  had  procured  the  death  of  her 
husbands,  and  had  so  beguiled  and  infatuated  them, 
that  they  had  given  all  their  property  to  her  and  her 
^on  [by  her  first  husband,  William  Outlawe],  to  the 
perpetual  impoverishment  of  their  own  sons  and  heirs  : 
insomuch  that  her  present  [and  fourth]  husband,  Sir 
John  Le  Poer,  was  reduced  to  a  most  miserable  con- 
dition of  body  by  her  ointments,  powders,  and  other 
magical  preparations;  but,  being  warned  by  her 
maidservant,  he  had  forcibly  taken  from  his  wife  the 
keys  of  her  house,  in  wrhich  he  found  a  bag  filled 
with  the  '  detestable  '  articles  above  mentioned,  which 
he  had  sent  to  the  Bishop.  Seventh:  That  there 
existed  an  unholy  connection  between  the  said  Lady 
Alice  and  the  demon  called  Robert  Artisson,  who 
sometimes  appeared  to  her  in  the  form  of  a  cat, 
sometimes  in  that  of  a  black  shaggy  dog,  and  at 
others  in  the  form  of  a  black  man,  with  two  tall 
companions  as  black  as  himself,  each  carrying  in  his 
hand  a  rod  of  iron.  Some  of  the  old  chroniclers 
embroider  upon  this  charge  the  fanciful  details  that 
her  offering  to  the  demon  was  nine  red  cocks'  and 
nine  peacocks'  eyes,  which  were  paid  on  a  certain 
stone  bridge  at  a  cross-road ;  that  she  had  a  magical 
ointment,*  wrhich  she  rubbed  upon  a  coulter  or 

*  So  in  Duclerq's  *  Memoires '  ('  Collect,  du  Pantheon '),  p.  141, 
we  read  of  a  case  at  Arras,  in  which  the  sorcerers  were  accused  of 
using  such  an  ointment:  'D'ung  oignement  que  le  diable  leur 
avoit  bailie,  ils  oindoient  une  vergue  de  bois  bien  petite,  et  leurs 
palmes  et  leurs  mains,  puis  mectoient  celle  virguelte  entre  leurs 
jambes,  et  tantost  ils  s'en  volvient  ou  ils  voullvient  estre,  pur- 
desseures  bonnes  villes,  bois  et  cams;  et  les  portoit  le  diable 
au  lieu  ou  ils  debvoient  faire  leur  assemblee.' 


CHAP.  I.]         EARLY  HISTORY  OF  WITCHCRAFT.  219 

plough  handle,  in  order  that  the  said  coulter  might 
carry  her  and  her  companions  whithersoever  they 
wished  to  go ;  that  in  her  house  was  found  a  conse- 
crated wafer,  with  the  devil's  name  written  upon  it ; 
and  that,  sweeping  the  streets  of  Kilkenny  between 
complin  and  twilight,  she  raked  up  all  the  ordure 
towards  the  doors  of  her  son,  William  Outlawe, 
saying  to  herself: 

'  To  the  house  of  William  my  son, 
Hie  all  the  wealth  of  Kilkenny  town.' 

The  lady,  rejoicing  in  powerful  friends  and 
advisers,  defied  the  Bishop  and  all  his  works.  She 
was  excommunicated,  and  her  son  summoned  to 
appear  before  the  Bishop  for  the  offence  of  harbouring 
and  concealing  her ;  but  Dame  Alice's  friends  re- 
taliated by  throwing  the  Bishop  into  prison  for 
several  days.  He  revenged  himself  by  placing  the 
whole  diocese  under  an  interdict,  and  again  summon- 
ing William  Outlawe  to  appear  on  a  certain  day ;  but 
before  the  day  arrived,  he  in  his  turn  was  cited  before 
the  Lord  Justice,  to  answer  for  having  imposed  an 
interdict  on  his  diocese,  and  to  defend  himself  against 
accusations  submitted  by  the  seneschal.  The  Bishop 
pleaded  that  it  was  unsafe  for  him  to  travel ;  but  the 
plea  was  not  allowed,  and,  to  save  himself  from  further 
molestation,  he  recalled  the  interdict. 

The  quarrel  was  not  yet  fought  out.  On  the 
Monday  following  the  octave  of  Easter,  the  seneschal, 
Arnold  de  la  Poer,  held  his  judicial  court  in  the 
Assize  Hall  at  Kilkenny.  Thither  repaired  the 
Bishop,  and,  though  refused  admission,  he  forced  his 


220  WITCH,  WARLOCK,  AND  MAGICIAN.       [BOOK  II. 

way  in,  robed  in  full  pontificals,  carrying  in  his  hand 
the  Host  in  pyx  of  gold,  and  attended  by  a  numerous 
train  of  friars  and  clergy.  But  he  was  received  with 
a  storm  of  insults  and  reproaches,  which  compelled 
him  to  retire.  Upon  his  repeated  protests,  however, 
and  at  the  intercession  of  some  influential  personages, 
his  return  was  permitted.  Being  ordered  to  take 
his  stand  at  the  criminal's  bar,  he  exclaimed  that 
Christ  had  never  been  treated  so  before,  since  He 
stood  at  the  bar  before  Pontius  Pilate  ;  and  he  loudly 
called  upon  the  seneschal  to  order  the  arrest  of  the 
persons  accused  of  sorcery,  and  their  deliverance  into 
his  hands.  When  the  seneschal  abruptly  refused, 
he  opened  the  book  of  the  decretals,  and  saith,  '  You, 
Sir  Arnold,  are  a  knight,  and  instructed  in  letters, 
and  that  you  may  not  have  the  excuse  of  ignorance, 
we  are  prepared  to  prove  by  these  decretals  that  you 
and  your  officials  are  bound  to  obey  our  order  in  this 
matter,  under  heavy  penalties.' 

*  Go  to  the  church  with  your  decretals,'  replied  the 
seneschal,  '  and  preach  there,  for  none  of  us  here  will 
listen  to  you.' 

In  the  Bishop's  character  there  must  have  been  a 
fine  strain  of  perseverance,  for  all  these  rebuffs  failed 
to  baffle  him,  and  he  actually  succeeded,  after  a  suc- 
cession of  disappointments  and  a  constant  renewal  of 
difficulties,  in  obtaining  permission  to  bring  the 
alleged  offenders  to  trial.  Most  of  them  suffered 
imprisonment  ;  but  Dame  Alice  escaped  him,  being 
secretly  conveyed  to  England.  Of  all  concerned  in 
the  affair,  only  one  was  punished  Petronella  of 


CHAP.  T.]         EARLY  HISTORY  OF  WITCHCRAFT.  221 

Meath,  who  was  selected  as  a  scapegoat,  probably 
because  she  had  neither  friends  nor  means  of  de- 
fence. 

By  order  of  the  Bishop  she  was  six  times  flogged, 
after  which  the  poor  tortured  victim  made  a  confes- 
sion, in  which  she  declared  not  only  her  own  guilt, 
but  that  of  everybody  against  whom  the  Bishop  had 
proceeded.  She  affirmed  that  in  all  Britain,  nay, 
indeed,  in  the  whole  world,  was  no  one  more  skilled 
in  magical  practices  than  Dame  Alice  Kyteler.  She 
was  brought  to  admit  the  truth — though  in  her  heart 
she  must  have  known  its  absolute  falsehood* — of 
the  episcopal  indictment,  and  pretended  that  she  had 
been  present  at  the  sacrifices  to  the  Evil  One — that 
she  had  assisted  in  making  the  unguents  with  the 
unsavoury  materials  already  mentioned,  and  that 
with  these  unguents  different  effects  were  produced 
upon  different  persons — the  faces  of  certain  ladies, 
for  instance,  being  made  to  appear  horned  like  goats  ; 
that  sbe  had  been  present  at  the  nocturnal  revelries, 
and,  with  her  mistress's  assistance,  had  frequently 
pronounced  sentence  of  excommunication  against  her 
own  husband,  with  all  due  magical  rites  ;  that  she 
had  attended  Dame  Alice  in  her  assignations  with 
the  demon,  Robert  Artisson,  and  had  seen  acts  of  an 
immorality  so  foul  that  I  dare  not  allude  to  it  pass 

*  That  is,  of  sacrificing  to  the  Evil  One,  of  meeting  the  demon 
Robert  Artisson,  and  so  on ;  though  it  is  quite  possible  that 
strange  unguents  were  made  and  administered  to  different  persons, 
and  that  Dame  Alice  and  her  companions  played  at  being  sorcerers. 
Some  of  the  so-called  witches,  as  we  shall  see,  encouraged  the 
deception  on  account  of  the  influence  it  gave  them. 


222  WITCH,  WARLOCK,  AND  MAGICIAN.       [BOOK  II. 

between  them.  Having  been  coerced  and  tortured 
into  this  amazingly  wild  and  fictitious  confession, 
the  poor  woman  was  declared  guilty,  sentenced,  and 
burned  alive,  the  first  victim  of  the  witchcraft  delu- 
sion in  Ireland. 


It  is  worthy  of  observation  that  the  mind  of  the 
public  was  roused  to  a  much  stronger  feeling  of 
hostility  against  witchcraft  than  against  magic. 
Alchemists,  astrologers,  fortune-tellers,  diviners,  and 
the  like,  might  incur  suspicion,  and  sometimes  punish- 
ment ;  but,  on  the  whole,  they  were  treated  with 
tolerance,  and  even  with  distinction.  For  this 
inequality  of  treatment  two  or  three  reasons  suggest 
themselves.  In  the  crime  of  witchcraft  the  central 
feature  was  the  compact  with  the  demon,  and  it  was 
natural  that  men  should  resent  an  act  which  entailed 
the  eternal  loss  of  the  soul.  Again,  witchcraft,  much 
more  frequently  than  magic,  was  the  instrument  of 
personal  ill-feeling,  and  was  more  generally  directed 
against  the  lower  classes.  The  magician  seldom  used 
his  power  except  when  liberally  paid  by  an  employer  ; 
the  witch,  it  was  thought,  exercised  her  skill  for  the 
gratification  of  her  own  malice.  However  this  may 
be,  an  imputation  of  witchcraft  became,  in  the  fifteenth 
century,  a  formidable  affair,  ensuring  the  death  or 
ruin  of  the  unfortunate  individual  against  whom  it 
was  made.  There  was  no  little  difficulty  in  defend- 
ing one's  self;  and  in  truth,  once  made,  it  clung  to 
its  victim  like  a  Nessus's  shirt,  and  with  a  result  as 
deadly. 


CHAP.  I.]         EARLY  HISTORY  OF  WITCHCRAFT.  223 

Its  value  as  a  political  '  move '  was  shown  in  the 
persecution  of  the  Knights  Templars,  and,  in  our 
own  history,  in  Cardinal  Beaufort's  "Intrigue  against 
Humphrey,  Duke  of  Gloucester,  who  governed  Eng- 
land as  Protector  during  the  minority  of  Henry  YI. 

The  Cardinal  struck  at  the  Duke  through  his 
beautiful  wife,  Eleanor  Cobham.  In  July,  1441,  two 
ecclesiastics,  Roger  Bolingbroke,  and  Thomas  South- 
well, a  canon  of  St.  Stephen's  Chapel,  were  arrested 
on  a  charge  of  high  treason  ;  '  for  it  was  said  that 
the  said  Master  Roger  should  labour  to  consume  the 
King's  person  by  way  of  necromancy  ;  and  that  the 
said  Master  Thomas  should  say  masses  upon  certain 
instruments  with  the  which  the  said  Master  Roger 
should  use  his  said  craft  of  necromancy.'  Bolingbroke 
was  a  scholar,  an  adept  in  natural  science,  and  an 
ardent  student  of  astronomy  :  William  of  Worcester 
describes  him  as  one  of  the  most  famous  clerks  of 
the  world.  One  Sunday,  after  having  undergone 
rigorous  examination,  he  was  conveyed  to  St.  Paul's 
Cross,  where  he  was  mounted  '  on  a  high  stage  above 
all  men's  heads  in  Paul's  Churchyard,  whiles  the 
sermon  endured,  holding  a  sword  in  his  right  hand 
and  a  sceptre  in  his  left,  arrayed  in  a  marvellous 
array,  wherein  he  was  wont  to  sit  when  he  wrought 
his  necromancy/ 

The  Duchess  of  Gloucester,  meanwhile,  perceiving 
that  her  ruin  was  intended,  fled  to  sanctuary  at 
Westminster.  Before  the  King's  Council  Boling- 
broke was  brought  to  confess  that  he  had  plied  his 
magical  trade  at  the  Duchess's  instigation,  '  to  know 


224  WITCH,  WARLOCK,  AND  MAGICIAN.       [BOOK  II. 

what  should  fall  of  her,  and  to  what  estate  she  should 
come.'  In  other  words,  he  had  cast  her  horoscope, 
a  proceeding  common  enough  in  those  days,  and  one 
which  had  no  treasonable  complexion.  The  Cardinal's 
party,  however,  seized  upon  Bolingbroke's  confession, 
and  made  such  use  of  it  that  the  unfortunate  lady 
was  cited  to  appear  before  an  ecclesiastical  tribunal 
composed  of  Chicheley,  Archbishop  of  Canterbury, 
Cardinal  Beaufort,  Bishop  of  Winchester,  Cardinal 
Kemp,  Archbishop  of  York,  and  Ayscongh,  Bishop 
of  Salisbury,  on  July  2,  '  to  answer  to  divers  articles 
of  necromancy,  of  witchcraft  or  sorcery,  of  heresy,  and 
of  treason.'  Bolingbroke  was  brought  forward  as  a 
witness,  and  repeated  that  the  Duchess  'first  stirred 
him  to  labour  in  his  necromancy.' 

After  this,  he  and  Southwell  were  indicted  as  prin- 
cipals of  treason,  and  the  Duchess  as  accessory, 
though,  if  his  story  were  true,  their  positions  should 
have  been  reversed.  At  the  same  time,  a  woman 
named  Margery  Goodman,  and  known  as  the  '  Witch 
of  Eye,'  was  burned  at  Srriithfield  because  in  former 
days  she  had  given  potions  and  philtres  to  Eleanor 
Cobham,  to  enable  her  to  secure  the  Duke  of  Glouces- 
ter's affections.  Roger  Bolingbroke  was  hung,  drawn, 
and  quartered,  according  to  the  barbarous  custom  of 
the  age  ;  Southwell  escaped  a  similar  fate  by  dying 
in  the  Tower  before  the  day  appointed  for  his  trial. 
The  charge  of  high  treason  brought  against  them 
rested  entirely  on  the  allegation  that,  at  the  Duchess's 
request,  they  had  made  a  waxen  image  to  resemble 
the  King,  and  had  placed  it  before  a  fire,  that,  as 


CHAP.  I.]         EARLY  HISTORY  OF  WITCHCRAFT.  225 

it  gradually  melted,  so  might  the  King  gradually 
languish  away  and  die.  As  for  the  Duchess,  she  was 
sentenced  to  do  penance,  which  she  fulfilled  '  right 
meekly,  so  that  the  more  part  of  the  people  had  her 
in  great  compassion,'  on  Monday,  November  13, 
1441,  walking  barefoot,  with  a  lighted  taper  in  her 
hand,  from  Temple  Bar  to  St.  Paul's,  where  she 
offered  the  taper  at  the  high  altar.  She  repeated  the 
penance  on  the  Wednesday  and  Friday  following, 
walking  to  St.  Paul's  by  different  routes,  and  on  each 
occasion  was  accompanied  by  the  Lord  Mayor,  the 
sheriffs,  and  the  various  guilds,  and  by  a  multitude 
of  people,  whom  the  repute  of  her  beauty  and  her 
sorrows  had  attracted,  so  that  what  was  intended  for 
a  humiliation  became  really  a  triumph.  She  was 
afterwards  imprisoned  in  Chester  Castle,  and  thence 
transferred  to  the  Isle  of  Man. 


The  charge  of  sorcery  which  Richard  III.  brought 
against  Lord  Hastings,  accusing  him  of  having  wasted 
his  left  arm,  though  from  his  birth  it  had  been  fleshless, 
dry,  and  withered,  is  made  the  basis  of  an  effective 
scene  in  Shakespeare's  i  Richard  III/  His  brother's 
widow,  Queen  Elizabeth  Woodville,  was  included  in 
the  charge,  and  Jane  Shore  was  named  as  her  accom- 
plice. This  frail  beauty  was  brought  before  the 
Council,  and  accused  of  having  £  endeavoured  the  ruin 
and  destruction  of  the  Protector  in  several  ways,'  and 
particularly  *  by  witchcraft  had  decayed  his  body, 
and  with  the  Lord  Hastings  had  contrived  to  assas- 
sinate him.'  The  indictment,  however,  was  not  sus- 

15 


226  WITCH,  WARLOCK,  AND  MAGICIAN.      [BOOK  II. 

tained,  and  her  offence  was  reduced  to  that  of  lewd 
living.  Whereupon  she  was  handed  over  to  the 
Bishop  of  London  to  do  public  penance  for  her  sin 
on  Sunday  morning  in  St.  Paul's  Cathedral  church. 
Clothed  in  a  white  sheet,  with  a  wax  taper  in  her 
hand,  and  a  cross  borne  before  her,  she  was  led  in 
procession  from  the  episcopal  palace  to  the  cathedral, 
where  she  made  open  confession  of  her  fault.  The 
moral  effect  of  this  exhibition  seems  to  have  been 
considerably  marred  by  the  beauty  of  the  penitent, 
which  produced  upon  the  multitude  an  impression 
similar  to  that  which  the  bared  bosom  of  Phryne 
produced  upon  her  judges  in  the  days  of  old. 

I  In  1480  Pope  Innocent  VIII.  issued  a  Bull  en- 
joining the  detection,  trial,  and  punishment  (by  burn- 
ing) of  witches.  This  was  the  first  formal  recognition 
of  witchcraft  by  the  head  of  the  Church.  In  England 
the  first  Act  of  Parliament  levelled  at  it  was  passed 
in  1541.  Ten  years  later  two  more  statutes  were 
enacted,  one  relating  to  false  prophecies,  and  the 
other  to  conjuration,  witchcraft  and  sorcery.  But  in 
no  one  of  these  was  witchcraft  condemned  qua  witch- 
craft ;  they  were  directed  against  those  who,  by  means 
of  spells,  incantations,  or  compacts  with  the  devil, 
threatened  the  lives  and  properties  of  their  neigh- 
bours. '  When,  in  1561,  Sir  Edward  Waldegrave,  one 
of  Mary  Stuart's  councillors,  was  arrested  by  order  of 
Secretary  Cecil  as  'a  mass-monger/  the  Bishop  of 
London,  to  whom  he  was  remitted,  felt  no  disposi- 
tion to  inflict  a  heavy  penalty  for  hearing  or  saying 
of  mass  ;  but,  on  inquiry,  he  discovered  that  the 


CHAP.   I.]        EARLY  HISTORY  OF  WITCHCRAFT.  227 

officiating  priest  had  been  concerned  in  concocting  '  a 
love-philtre/  and  he  then  decided  that  sorcery  would 
afford  a  safer  ground  for  process.  He  applied,  there- 
fore, to  Chief  Justice  Catlin,  to  learn  what  might  be 
the  law  in  such  cases,  and  was  astonished  when  he 
was  told  that  no  legal  provision  had  been  made  for 
them.  Previously  they  came  before  the  Church 
Courts ;  but  these  had  been  deprived  of  their  powers 
by  the  Reformation,  and  the  only  precedent  he  could 
find  for  moving  in  the  matter  belonged  to  the  reign 
of  Edward  III.,  and  was  thus  entered  on  the  roll: 

'  Ung  homme  f ut  prinse  en  Southwark  avec  ung  teste  et  ung 
visaige  dung  homme  morte  avec  ung  lyvre  de  sorcerie  en  son 
male  et  fut  amesn6  en  barike  du  Roy  devant  Knyvet  Justice,  mais 
nulle  indictment  fut  vers  lui,  por  qui  les  clerkes  luy  fierement 
jurement  quo  jamais  ne  feroit  sorcerie  en  apres,  et  fut  delyvoti 
del  prison,  et  le  teste  et  les  lyvres  furent  arses  a  Totehyll  a  les 
costages  du  prisonnier.'  (That  is :  A  man  was  taken  in  South- 
wark, with  a  dead  man's  skull  and  a  book  of  sorcery  in  his 
wallet,  and  was  brought  up  at  the  King's  Bench  before  Knyvet 
Justice ;  but  no  indictment  was  laid  against  him,  for  that  the 
clerks  made  him  swear  he  would  meddle  no  more  with  sorcery, 
and  the  head  and  the  books  were  burnt  at  Tothill  Fields  at  the 
prisoner's  charge.) 

i  ^ 
But  in  the  following  year  Parliament  passed  an 

Act  which  denned  witchcraft  as  a  capital  crime, 
whether  it  was  or  was  not  exerted  to  the  injury  of  the 
lives,  limbs,  and  possessions  of  the  lieges.  Thence- 
forward the  persecution  of  witches  took  its  place 
among  English  institutions.  During  the  latter  years 
of  Elizabeth's  reign  several  instances  occurred.  Thus, 
on  July  25, 1589,  three  witches  were  burnt  at  Chelms- 
ford.  The  popular  mind  was  gradually  familiarized 
with  the  idea  of  witchcraft,  and  led  to  concentrate  its 

15—2 


WITCH,  WARLOCK,  AND  MAGICIAN.      [BOOK  II. 

attention  on  the  individual  marks,  or  characteristics, 
which  were  supposed  to  indicate  its  professors.  Even 
among  the  higher  classes  a  belief  in  its  existence 
became  very  general,  and  it  is  startling  to  find  a  man 
like  the  learned  and  pious  Bishop  Jewell,  in  a  sermon 
before  Queen  Elizabeth,  saying :  '  It  may  please  your 
Grace  to  understand  that  witches  and  sorcerers  within 
these  last  four  years  are  marvellously  increased  within 
this  your  Grace's  realm.  Your  Grace's  subjects  pine 
away  even  unto  the  death  ;  their  colour  fadeth  ;  their 
flesh  rotteth  ;  their  speech  is  benumbed  ;  their  senses 
are  bereft !  I  pray  God  they  may  never  practise  further 
than  upon  the  subject !'  (1598). 

\The  witches  in  '  Macbeth ' — those  weird  sisters 
who  met  at  midnight  upon  the  blasted  heath,  and  in 
their  caldron  brewed  so  deadly  a  '  hell-broth ' — par- 
take of  the  dignity  of  the  poet's  genius,  and  belong 
to  the  vast  ideal  wo'rld  of  his  imagination.'  No  such 
midnight  hags  crossed  the  paths  of  ordinary  mortals. 
The  Elizabethan  witch,  who  scared  her  neighbours  in 
town  and  village,  and  flourished  on  their  combined 
ignorance  and  superstition,  appears,  however,  in  '  The 
Merry  Wives  of  Windsor,'  where  Master  Ford  de- 
scribes £  the  fat  woman  of  Brentford  '  as  '  a  witch,  a 
quean,  an  old  cozening  quean  !'  He  adds  :  '  Have  I 
not  forbid  her  my  house  ?  She  comes  of  errands, 
does  she  ?  We  are  simple  men ;  we  do  not  know 
what's  brought  to  pass  under  the  profession  of  for- 
tune-telling. She  works  by  charms,  by  spells,  by 
the  figure  ;  and  such  daubery  as  this  is  beyond  our 


CHAP.   I.]        EARLY  HISTORY  OF  WITCHCRAFT.  229 

element.'  Most  of  Master  Ford's  contemporaries,  I 
fear,  were,  in  this  matter,  '  simple  men.'  ( Even  per- 
sons of  rank  and  learning,  of  position  and  refinement, 
were  as  credulous  as  their  poorer,  more  ignorant,  and 
more  vulgar  neighbours  ;  were  just  as  ready  to  believe 
that  an  untaught  village  crone  had  made  a  compact 
with  the  devil,  and  bartered  her  soul  for  the  right  of 
straddling  across  a  broom  or  changing  herself  into  a 
black  cat !  \ 

Near  Warboise,  in  Huntingdonshire,  in  1593,  lived 
two  gentlemen  of  good  estate — Mr.  Throgmorton  and 
Sir  Samuel  Cromwell.  The  former  had  five  daughters, 
of  whom  the  eldest,  Joan,  was  possessed  with  a  lively 
imagination,  which  busied  itself  constantly  with  ghosts 
and  witches.  On  one  occasion,  when  she  passed  the 
cottage  of  an  old  and  infirm  woman,  known  as  Mother 
Samuel,  the  good  dame,  with  a  black  cap  on  her  head, 
was  sitting  at  her  door  knitting.  Mistress  Joan  ex- 
claimed that  she  was  a  witch,  hurried  home,  went  into 
convulsions,  and  declared  that  Mother  Samuel  had 
bewitched  her.  In  due  course,  her  sisters  followed 
her  example,  and  they  too  laid  the  blame  of  their  fits 
on  Mother  Samuel.  The  parents,  not  less  infatuated 
than  the  children,  lent  ready  ears  to  their  wild  tales, 
and  carried  them  to  Lady  Cromwell,  who,  as  a  friend 
of  Mrs.  Throgmorton,  took  the  matter  up  right 
earnestly,  and  resolved  that  the  supposed  witch 
should  be  put  to  the  ordeal.  Sir  Samuel  was  by 
no  means  unwilling;  and  the  children,  encouraged 
by  this  prompt  credulity,  let  loose  their  fertile  inven- 


230  WITCH,  WARLOCK,  AND  MAGICIAN.      [BOOK  II. 

tions.  They  declared  that  Mother  Samuel  sent  a 
legion  of  evil  spirits  to  torment  them  incessantly. 
Strange  to  say,  these  spirits  had  made  known  their 
names,  which,  though  grotesque,  had  nothing  of  a 
demoniac  character  about  them  —  '  First  Smack,7 
'  Second  Smack,'  'Third  Smack,'  'Blue,'  *  Catch/ 
6  Hardname/  and  '  Pluck ' — names  invented,  of  course, 
by  the  young  people  themselves. 

At  length  the  aggrieved  Throgmorton,  summoning 
all  his  courage,  repaired  to  Mother  Samuel's  humble 
residence,  seized  upon  the  unhappy  old  crone,  and 
dragged  her  into  his  own  grounds,  where  Lady  Crom- 
well and  Mrs.  Throgmorton  and  her  children  thrust 
long  pins  into  her  body  to  see  if  they  could  draw 
blood.  With  unmeasured  violence,  Lady  Cromwell 
tore  the  old  woman's  cap  from  her  head,  and  plucked 
out  a  handful  of  her  gray  hair,  which  she  gave  to 
Mrs.  Throgmorton  to  burn,  as  a  charm  that  wrould 
protect  her  from  all  further  evil  practices.  Smarting 
under  these  injuries,  the  poor  old  woman,  in  a  moment 
of  passion,  invoked  a  curse  upon  her  torturers — a 
curse  afterwards  remembered  against  her,  though  at 
the  time  she  was  allowed  to  depart.  For  more  than 
a  year  her  life  was  made  miserable  by  the  incessant 
persecution  inflicted  upon  her  by  the  two  hostile 
families,  who,  on  their  part,  declared  that  her  demons 
brought  upon  them  all  kinds  of  physical  ills,  pre- 
vented their  ewes  and  cows  from  bearing,  and  turned 
the  milk  sour  in  the  dairy-pans.  It  so  happened 
that  Lady  Cromwell  was  seized  with  a  sudden  illness, 
of  which  she  died,  and  though  some  fifteen  months 


CHAP.  I.]        EAKLY  HISTORY  OF  WITCHCRAFT.  231 

had  elapsed  since  the  utterance  of  the  curse,  on  poor 
Mother  Samuel  was  placed  the  responsibility.  Sir 
Samuel  Cromwell,  therefore,  felt  called  upon  to  punish 
her  for  her  ill- doing. 

By  this  time  the  old  woman,  partly  through  listen- 
ing to  the  incessant  repetition  of  the  charges  against 
her,  and  partly,  perhaps,  from  a  weak  delight  in  the 
notoriety  she  had  attained,  had  come  to  believe,  or  to 
think  she  believed,  that  she  was  really  the  witch 
everybody  declared  her  to  be — -just  as  a  young 
versifier  is  sometimes  deluded  into  a  conviction  of 
his  poetic  genius  through  unwisely  crediting  the 
eulogies  of  an  admiring  circle  of  friends  and  relatives. 
On  one  occasion,  she  was  forcibly  conveyed  into  Mrs. 
Throgmorton's  house  when  Joan  was  in  one  of  her 
frequently-recurring  fits,  and  ordered  to  exorcise  the 
demon  that  was  troubling  the  maid,  with  the  formula : 
4  As  I  am  a  witch,  and  the  causer  of  Lady  Cromwell's 
death,  I  charge  thee,  fiend,  to  come  out  of  her!'  The 
poor  creature  did  as  she  was  told,  and  confessed, 
besides,  that  her  husband  and  her  daughter  were  her 
associates  in  witchcraft,  and  that  all  three  had  sold 
their  souls  to  the  devil.  On  this  confession  the  whole 
family  were  arrested,  and  sent  to  Huntingdon  Gaol. 
Soon  afterwards  they  were  tried  before  Mr.  Justice 
Fenner,  and  put  to  the  torture. 

In  her  agony  the  old  woman  confessed  anything 
that  was  required  of  her — she  was  a  witch,  she  had 
bewitched  the  Throgmortons,  she  had  caused  the 
death  of  Lady  Cromwell.  Her  husband  and  her 
daughter,  stronger-minded,  resolutely  asserted  their 


232  WITCH,  WARLOCK,  AND  MAGICIAN.      [BOOK  II. 

innocence.  Ignorance,  however,  would  not  be  denied 
its  victims  ;  all  three  were  sentenced  to  be  hanged, 
and  to  have  their  bodies  burned.  The  daughter,  who 
was  young  and  comely,  was  regarded  compassionately 
by  many  persons,  and  advised  to  gain  at  least  a 
respite  by  pleading  pregnancy.  She  indignantly 
refused  to  sacrifice  her  good  name.  They  might 
falsely  call  her  a  witch,  she  exclaimed,  but  they 
should  not  be  able  to  say  that  she  had  acknowledged 
herself  to  be  a  harlot.  Her  old  mother,  however, 
caught  at  the  idea,  and  openly  asserted  that  she  was 
with  child,  the  court  breaking  out  into  loud  laughter, 
in  which  she  fatuously  joined.  The  three  victims 
suffered  on  April  7,  1595. 

Out  of  the  confiscated  property  of  the  Samuels,  Sir 
Samuel  Cromwell,  as  lord  of  the  manor,  received  a 
sum  of  £40,  which  he  converted  into  an  annual  rent- 
charge  of  40s.  for  the  endowment  of  an  annual  sermon 
or  lecture  on  the  iniquity  of  witchcraft,  to  be  delivered 
by  a  D.D.  or  B.D.  of  Queen's  College,  Cambridge. 
This  strange  memorial  of  a  shameful  and  ignorant 
superstition  was  discontinued  early  in  the  eighteenth 
century. 

In  1594,  Ferdinando,  Earl  of  Derby,  died  in  and 
from  the  firm  conviction  that  he  was  mortally  be- 
witched, though  he  had  no  knowledge  of  the  person 
who  had  so  bewitched  him. 

About  the  same  time  there  lived  in  an  obscure  part 
of  Lancashire,  not  far  from  Pendle,  two  families  of 
the  names  of  Dundike  and  Chattox  respectively,  who 


CHAP.   I.]         EARLY  HISTORY  OF  WITCHCRAFT.  233 

both  pretended  to  enjoy  supernatural  privileges,  and 
were  therefore  as  bitterly  antagonistic  as  if  they  had 
belonged  to  different  political  factions.  Their  neigh- 
bours, however,  seem  to  have  believed  in  the  superior 
claims  of  the  head  of  the  Dundike  family,  Mother 
Dundike,  who  pretended  that  she  had  enjoyed  her 
unhallowed  powers  for  half  a  century.  The  year  in 
which  occurred  the  incidents  I  am  about  to  describe 
was,  so  to  speak,  her  jubilee. 

Mother  Dundike  must  have  been  a  woman  of  lively 
imagination,  if  we  may  form  conclusions  from  her 
graphic  account  of  the  circumstances  attending  her 
initiation  into  the  great  army  of  '  the  devil's  own.'  One 
day,  when  returning  from  a  begging  expedition,  she 
was  accosted  by  a  boy,  dressed  in  a  parti-coloured  gar- 
ment of  black  and  white,  who  proved  to  be  a  demon, 
or  evil  spirit,  and  promised  her  that,  in  return  for  the 
gift  of  her  soul,  she  should  have  anything  and  every- 
thing she  desired.  On  inquiring  his  name,  she  was 
told  it  was  Tib;  and  here  I  may  note  that  the 
'  princes  and  potentates  '  of  the  nether  world  seem  to 
have  had  a  great  predilection  for  monosyllabic  names, 
and  names  of  a  vulgar  and  commonplace  character. 
The  upshot  of  the  conversation  between  Tib  and  the 
woman  was  the  surrender  of  her  soul  on  the  liberal 
conditions  promised,  and  for  the  next  five  or  six  years 
the  said  devil  frequently  appeared  unto  her  '  about 
daylight-gate '  (near  evening),  and  asked  what  she 
would  have  or  do.  With  wonderful  unselfishness  she 
replied,  '  Nothing.'  Towards  the  end  of  the  sixth 
year,  on  a  quiet  Sabbath  morning,  while  she  lay 


234  WITCH,  WARLOCK,  AND  MAGICIAN.      [BOOK  II. 

asleep,  Tib  came  in  the  shape  of  a  brown  dog,  forced 
himself  to  her  knee,  and,  as  she  wore  no  other  gar- 
ment than  a  smock,  succeeded  in  drawing  blood. 
Awaking  suddenly,  she  exclaimed,  '  Jesu,  save  my 
child !'  but  had  not  the  power  to  say,  {  Jesu,  save  mef 
Whereupon  the  brown  dog  vanished,  and  for  a  space 
of  eight  weeks  she  was  4  almost  stark  mad.' 

The  matter-of-fact  style  which  distinguishes  Mother 
Dundike's  confession  may  also  be  traced  in  the  state- 
ments of  her  children  and  grandchildren,  who  all 
speak  as  if  witchcraft  were  an  everyday  reality,  and 
as  if  evil  spirits  in  various  common  disguises  went  to 
and  fro  in  the  land  with  edifying  regularity.  Let  us 
turn  to  the  evidence,  if  such  it  may  be  called,  of 
Alison  Device,  a  girl  of  about  thirteen  or  fourteen 
years  of  age.  Incriminating  her  grandmother  with- 
out scruple,  she  declared  that  when  they  were  on  the 
tramp,  the  old  woman  frequently  persuaded  her  to 
allow  a  devil  or  i  familiar '  to  suck  at  some  part  of  her 
body,  after  which  she  might  have  and  do  what  she 
would — though,  strange  to  say,  neither  she  nor  any- 
one else  ever  availed  themselves  of  their  powers  to 
improve  their  material  condition,  but  lingered  on  in 
poverty  and  privation.  James  Device,  one  of  Mother 
Dundike's  grandsons,  said  that  on  Shrove  Tuesday 
she  bade  him  go  to  church  to  receive  the  sacrament— 
not,  however,  to  eat  the  consecrated  bread,  but  to 
bring  at  away,  and  deliver  it  to  '  such  a  Thing'  as 
should  meet  him  on  his  way  homeward.  But  he  dis- 
obeyed the  injunction,  and  ate  the  sacred  bread.  On 
his  way  home,  when  about  fifty  yards  from  the 


CHAP.   I.]        EARLY  HISTORY  OF  WITCHCRAFT.  235 

church,  he  was  met  by  a  *  Thing  in  the  shape  of  a 
hare/  which  asked  him  whether  he  had  brought  the 
bread  according  to  his  grandmother's  directions.  He 
answered  that  he  had  riot;  and  therefore  the  Thing 
threatened  to  rend  him  in  pieces,  but  he  got  rid  of  it 
by  calling  upon  God. 

Some  few  days  later,  hard  by  the  new  church  in 
Pendle,  a  Thing  appeared  to  him  like  to  a  brown  dog, 
asked  him  for  his  soul,  and  promised  in  return  that 
he  should  be  avenged  on  his  enemies.  The  virtuous 
youth  replied,  somewhat  equivocatingly,  that  his  soul 
was  not  his  to  give,  but  belonged  to  his  Saviour  Jesus 
Christ ;  as  much  as  was  his  to  give,  however,  he  was 
contented  to  dispose  of.  Two  or  three  days  later 
James  Device  had  occasion  to  go  to  Cave  Hall,  where 
a  Mrs.  Towneley  angrily  accused  him  of  having  stolen 
some  of  her  turf,  and  drove  him  from  her  door  with 
violence.  When  the  devil  next  appeared — this  time 
like  a  black  dog — he  found  James  Device  in  the  right 
temper  for  a  deed  of  wickedness.  He  was  instructed 
to  make  an  image  of  clay  like  Mrs.  Towneley ;  which 
he  did,  and  dried  it  the  same  night  by  the  fire,  and 
daily  for  a  week  crumbled  away  the  said  image,  and 
two  days  after  it  was  all  gone  Mrs.  Towneley  died  ! 
In  the  following  Lent,  one  John  Duckworth,  of  the 
Launde,  promised  him  an  old  shirt ;  but  when  young 
Device  went  to  his  house  for  the  gift,  he  was  denied, 
and  sent  away  with  contumely.  The  spirit  c  Dandy ' 
then  appeared  to  him,  and  exclaimed :  '  Thou  didst 
touch  the  man  Duckworth/  which  he,  James  Device, 
denied ;  but  the  spirit  persisted :  c  Yes ;  thou  didst 


236  WITCH,  WARLOCK,  AND  MAGICIAN.      [BOOK  II. 

touch  him,  and  therefore  he  is  in  my  power.'  Device 
then  agreed  with  the  demon  that  the  said  Duckworth 
should  meet  with  the  same  fate  as  Mrs.  Towneley, 
and  in  the  following  week  he  died. 

It  is  a  curious  fact  that  the  old  woman  Chattox,  the 
head  of  the  rival  faction  of  practitioners  in  witchcraft, 
accused  Mother  Dundike  of  having  inveigled  her  into 
the  ranks  of  the  devil's  servants.  This  was  about  1597 
or  1598.  To  Mrs.  Chattox  the  Evil  One  appeared — as 
he  has  appeared  to  too  many  of  her  sex — in  the  shape 
of  a  man.  Time,  midnight;  place,  Elizabeth  Dun- 
dike's  tumble-down  cottage.  He  asked,  as  usual,  for 
her  soul,  which  she  at  first  refused,  but  afterwards,  at 
Mother  Dundike's  advice  and  solicitation,  agreed  to 
part  with.  '  Whereupon  the  said  wicked  spirit  then 
said  unto  her,  that  he  must  have  one  part  of  her  body 
for  him  to  suck  upon ;  the  which  she  denied  then  to 
grant  unto  him ;  and  withal  asked  him,  what  part  of 
her  body  he  would  have  for  that  use ;  who  said,  he 
would  have  a  place  of  her  right  side,  near  to  her  ribs, 
for  him  to  suck  upon ;  whereunto  she  assented.  And 
she  further  said  that,  at  the  same  time,  there  was  a 
Thing  in  the  likeness  of  a  spotted  bitch,  that  came 
with  the  said  spirit  unto  the  said  Dundike,  which  did 
then  speak  unto  her  in  Anne  Chattox' s  hearing,  and 
said,  that  she  should  have  gold,  silver,  and  worldly 
wealth  at  her  will ;  and  at  the  same  time  she  saith 
there  was  victuals,  viz.,  flesh,  butter,  cheese,  bread, 
and  drink,  and  bid  them  eat  enough.  And  after  their 
eating,  the  devil  called  Fancy,  and  the  other  spirit 


CHAP.   I.]        EARLY  HISTORY  OF  WITCHCRAFT.  237 

calling  himself  Tib  carried  the  remnant  away.  And 
she  saith,  that  although  they  did  eat,  they  were  never 
the  fuller  nor  better  for  the  same ;  and  that  at  their 
said  banquet  the  said  spirits  gave  them  light  to  see 
what  they  did,  although  they  had  neither  fire  nor 
candle-light;  and  that  there  be  both  she-spirits  and 
(he-)devils.' 

In  a  later  chapter  I  shall  have  occasion  to  refer 
to  the  confessions  of  the  various  persons  impli- 
cated in  this  '  Great  Oyer '  of  witchcraft.  What 
comes  out  very  strongly  in  them  is  the  hostility 
which  existed  between  the  Chattoxes  and  the  Dun- 
dikes,  and  their  respective  adherents.  In  Pendle 
Forest  there  were  evidently  two  distinct  parties,  one 
of  which  sought  the  favour  and  sustained  the  pre- 
tensions of  Mother  Dundike,  the  other  being  not  less 
steadfast  in  allegiance  to  Mother  Chattox.  As  to 
these  two  beldams,  it  is  clear  enough  that  they 
encouraged  the  popular  credulity,  resorted  to  many 
ingenious  expedients  for  the  purpose  of  supporting 
their  influence,  and  unscrupulously  employed  that 
influence  in  furtherance  of  their  personal  aims.  They 
knowingly  played  at  a  sham  game  of  commerce  with 
the  devil,  and  enjoyed  the  fear  and  awe  with  which 
their  neighbours  looked  up  to  them.  It  flattered 
their  vanity;  and  perhaps  they  played  the  game  so 
long  as  to  deceive  themselves.  '  Human  passions  are 
always  to  a  certain  degree  infectious.  Perceiving 
the  hatred  of  their  neighbours,  they  began  to  think 
that  they  were  worthy  objects  of  detestation  and 
terror,  that  their  imprecations  had  a  real  effect,  and 


238  WITCH,  WARLOCK,  AND  MAGICIAN.      [BOOK  II. 

their  curses  killed.  The  brown  horrors  of  the  forest 
were  favourable  to  visions,  and  they  sometimes  almost 
believed  that  they  met  the  foe  of  mankind  in  the 
night.'  To  the  delusions  of  the  imagination,  especi- 
ally when  suggested  by  pride  and  vanity,  there  are  no 
means  of  putting  a  limit ;  and  it  is  quite  possible  that 
in  time  these  women  gave  credence  to  their  own  absurd 
inventions,  and  saw  a  demon  or  familiar  spirit  in 
every  hare  or  black  or  brown  dog  that  accidentally 
crossed  their  path. 

For  awhile  the  witches  created  a  reign  of  terror  in 
the  forest.  But  the  interlacing  animosities  which 
gradually  sprang  up  between  its  inhabitants  were  the 
fertile  source  of  so  much  disorder  that,  at  length,  a 
county  magistrate  of  more  than  ordinary  energy, 
Roger  No  well,  Esq.,  described  as  a  very  honest  and 
religious  gentleman,  conceived  the  idea  that,  by  sup- 
pressing them,  he  should  do  the  State  good  service. 
Accordingly  he  ordered  the  arrest  of  Dundike  arid 
Chattox,  Alison  Device,  and  Anne  Redfern,  and  each, 
in  the  hope  of  saving  her  life,  having  made  a  full 
confession,  he  committed  them  to  Lancaster  Castle, 
on  April  2,  1612,  to  take  their  trials  at  the  next 
assizes. 

No  attempt  was  made,  however,  to  search  Malkin 
Tower.  This  lonely  ruin  was  regarded  with  super- 
stitious dread  by  the  peasantry,  who  durst  never 
approach  it,  on  account  of  the  strange  unearthly 
noises  and  the  weird  creatures  that  haunted  its  wild 
recesses.  James  Device,  when  examined  afterwards 
by  Nowell,  deposed  that  about  a  month  before  his 


CHAP.   I.]         EARLY  HISTORY  OF  WITCHCRAFT.  239 

arrest,  as  he  was  going  towards  his  mother's  house  in 
the  twilight,  he  met  a  brown  dog  coming  from  it, 
and,  of  course,  a  brown  dog  was  the  disguise  of  an 
evil  spirit.  About  two  or  three  nights  after,  he 
heard  a  great  number  of  children  shrieking  and 
crying  pitifully  in  the  same  uncanny  neighbourhood  ; 
and  at  a  later  date  his  ears  were  shocked  by  a  loud 
yelling,  '  like  unto  a  great  number  of  cats.'  We 
have  heard  the  same  sounds  ourselves,  at  night,  in 
places  which  did  not  profess  to  be  haunted  !  It  is 
very  possible  that  Dame  Dundike,  who  was  obviously 
a  crafty  old  wToman,  with  much  knowledge  of  human 
nature,  had  something  to  do  with  these  noises  and 
appearances,  for  it  was  to  her  interest  to  maintain 
the  eerie  reputation  of  the  Tower,  and  prevent  the 
intrusion  of  inquisitive  visitors.  With  all  her  little 
secrets,  it  was  natural  enough  she  should  say,  c  Procul 
este,  profanij  while  she  would  necessarily  seize  every 
opportunity  of  extending  and  strengthening  her 
authority. 

It  was  the  general  belief  that  the  Malkin  Tower 
was  the  place  where  the  witches  annually  kept  their 
Sabbath  on  Good  Friday,  and  in  1612,  after  Dame 
Dundike' s  arrest,  they  met  there  as  usual,  in  excep- 
tionally large  numbers,  and,  after  the  usual  feasting, 
conferred  together  on  4  the  situation ' — to  use  a  slang 
phrase  of  the  present  day.  Elizabeth  Device  pre- 
sided, and  asked  their  advice  as  to  the  best  method 
of  obtaining  her  mother's  release.  There  must  have 
been  some  daring  spirits  among  those  old  women  ; 
for  it  was  proposed — so  runs  the  record — to  kill 


240  WITCH,  WARLOCK,  AND  MAGICIAN.      [BOOK  II. 

Lovel,  the  gaoler  of  Lancaster  Castle,  and  another 
man  of  the  name  of  Lister,  accomplish  an  informal 
4  gaol-delivery/  and  blow  up  the  prison  !  Even  with 
the  help  of  their  familiars,  they  would  have  found  this 
a  difficult  and  dangerous  enterprise,  and  we  do  not 
wonder  that  the  proposal  met  with  general  disfavour. 
Seldom,  if  ever,  do  conspirators  meet  without  a 
traitor  in  their  midst  ;  and  on  this  occasion  there 
was  a  traitor  in  Malkin  Tower  in  the  person  of 
Janet  Device,  the  youngest  daughter  of  Alison 
Device,  and  grand-daughter  of  the  unfortunate  old 
woman  who  was  lying  ill  and  weak  in  Lancaster 
Gaol.  A  girl  of  only  nine  years  of  age,  she  was  an 
experienced  liar  and  thoroughly  unscrupulous  ;  and 
having  been  bribed  by  Justice  Nowell,  she  informed 
against  the  persons  present  at  this  meeting,  and 
secured  their  arrest.  The  number  of  prisoners  at 
Lancaster  was  increased  to  twelve,  among  whom  were 
Elizabeth  Device,  her  son  James,  and  Alice  Nutter,  of 
Rough  Lea,  a  lady  of  good  family  and  fair  estate. 
There  is  good  reason  to  believe  that  the  last-named 
was  in  no  way  implicated  in  the  doings  of  the  so- 
called  witches,  but  that  she  was  introduced  by  Janet 
Device  to  gratify  the  greed  of  some  of  her  relatives — - 
who,  in  the  event  of  her  death,  would  inherit  her 
property — and  the  ill-feeling  of  Justice  Nowell, 
whom  she  had  worsted  in  a  dispute  about  the 
boundary  of  their  respective  lands.  The  charges 
against  her  were  trivial,  and  amounted  to  no  more 
than  that  she  had  been  present  at  the  Malkin  Tower 
convention,  and  had  joined  with  Mother  Dundike  and 


CHAP.    I.]        EARLY  HISTORY  OF  WITCHCRAFT.  241 

Elizabeth  Device  in  bewitching  to  death  an  old  man 
named  Mitton.  The  only  witnesses  against  her  were 
Janet  and  Elizabeth  Device,  neither  of  whom  was 
worthy  of  credence. 

Blind   old   Mother  Dundike   escaped   the  terrible 
penalty  of  an  unrighteous  law  by  dying  in  prison 
before  the  day  of  trial.     But  justice  must  have  been 
well  satisfied  with  its   tale  of    victims.      Foremost 
among  them  was  Mother  Chattox,   the  head  of  the 
anti-Dundike  faction — i  a  very  old,  withered,   spent, 
and  decrepit  creature/  whose  sight  was  almost  gone, 
and  whose  lips  chattered  with  the  meaningless  babble 
of  senility.     When  judgment  was  pronounced  upon 
her,  she  uttered  a  wild,  incoherent  prayer  for  Divine 
mercy,  and  besought  the  judge  to  have  pity  upon 
Anne  Eedfern,  her  daughter.     The  next  person  for 
trial   was    Elizabeth    Device,    who   is    described   as 
having  been  branded  '  with  a  preposterous  mark  in 
nature,  even  from  her  birth,  which  was  her  left  eye 
standing   lower   than   the  other ;    the    one   looking 
down,  the  other  looking  up  ;  so  strangely  deformed 
that  the  best  that  were  present  in  that  honourable 
assembly  and  great  audience  did  affirm  they  had  not 
often  seen  the  like.'     When  this  woman  discovered 
that  the  principal  witness  against  her  was  her  own 
child,  she  broke  out  into  such  a  storm  of  curses  and 
reproaches   that  the  proceedings  came  to  a    sudden 
stop,   and  she   had   to  be  removed   from   the  court 
before  her   daughter   could   summon  up  courage  to 
repeat   the   fictions   she   had   learned    or  concocted. 
The  woman  was,  of  course,  found  guilty,  as  were 

16 


242  WITCH,  WARLOCK,  AND  MAGICIAN.       [BOOK  II. 

also  James  and  Alison  Device,  Alice  Nutter,  Anne 
Kedfern,  Katherine  Hewit,  John  and  Jane  Balcock, 
all  of  Pendle.  and  Isabel  Roby,  of  Win  die,  most  of 
whom  strenuously  asserted  their  innocence  to  the  last. 
On  August  13,  the  day  after  their  trial,  they  were 
burnt  '  at  the  common  place  of  execution,  near  to 
Lancaster ' — the  unhappy  victims  of  the  ignorance, 
superstition,  and  barbarity  of  the  age. 

Janet  Device,  as  King's  evidence,  obtained  a  par- 
don, though  she  acknowledged  to  have  taken  part  in 
the  practices  of  her  parents,  and  confessed  to  having 
learned  from  her  mother  two  prayers,  one  to  cure  the 
bewitched,  and  the  other  to  get  drink.  The  former, 
which  is  obviously  a  pasticcio  of  the  old  Eoman 
Catholic  hymns  and  traditional  rhymes,  runs  as 
follows  : 

'  Upon  Good  Friday,  I  will  fast  while  I  may 

Untill  I  heare  them  knell 

Our  Lord's  owne  bell. 

Lord  in  His  messe 

With  His  twelve  Apostles  good, 

What  hath  He  in  His  hand  ? 

Ligh  in  leath  wand  : 

What  hath  He  in  His  other  hand  ? 

Heaven's  door  key. 

Open,  open,  Heaven's  door  keys  ! 

Stark,  stark,  hell  door. 

Let  Criznen  child 

Goe  to  its  mother  mild ; 

What  is  yonder  that  crests  a  light  so  farrndly  1 

Thine  owne  deare  Sonne  that's  nailed  to  the  Tree. 

He  is  naild  sore  by  the  heart  and  hand, 

And  holy  harne  panne. 

Well  is  that  man 

That  Fryday  spell  can, 

His  child  to  learne  ; 


CHAP.  I.]        EARLY  HISTORY  OF  WITCHCRAFT.  243 

A  crosse  of  blew  and  another  of  red, 

As  good  Lord  was  to  the  Roode. 

Gabriel  laid  him  downe  to  sleepe 

Upon  the  ground  of  holy  weepe ; 

Good  Lord  came  walking  by. 

Sleep'st  thou,  wak'st  thou,  Gabriel  ? 

No,  Lord,  I  am  sted  with  sticks  and  stake 

That  I  can  neither  sleepe  nor  wake  : 

Rise  up,  Gabriel,  and  goe  with  me, 

The  stick  nor  the  stake  shall  never  dure  thee. 

Sweet  Jesus,  our  Lord,     Amen  ! 

The  other  prayer  consisted  only  of  the  Latin 
phrase :  l  Crucifixus  hoc  signurn  vitam  aeternam. 
Amen/* 

*  Thomas  Pott's  'Wonderful  Discoverie  of  Witches  in  the 
Countie  of  Lancashire'  (1615),  reprinted  by  the  Chetham 
Society,  1845. 


16—2 


244  WITCH,  WARLOCK,  AND  MAGICIAN.       [BOOK  II. 


CHAPTER  II. 

WITCHCEAFT  IN  ENGLAND  IN  THE  17TH  CENTURY. 

iTnE  accession  of  James  I.,  a  professed  demonologist, 
and  an  expert  in  all  matters  relating  to  witchcraft, 
gave  a  great  impulse  to  the  persecution  of  witches  in 
England.  *  Poor  old  women  and  girls  of  tender  age 
were  walked,  swum,  shaved,  and  tortured ;  the 
gallows  creaked  and  the  fires  blazed/  In  accordance 
with  the  well-known  economic  law,  that  the  demand 
creates  the  supply,  it  was  found  that,  in  proportion 
as  trials  and  tortures  increased,  so  did  the  number 
of  witches,  until  half  the  old  hags  in  England  sup- 
posed themselves,  or  were  supposed  by  others,  to 
have  made  compacts  with  the  devil.  Legislation 
then  augmented  its  severity,  and  Parliament,  in  com- 
pliance with  the  wishes  of  the  new  King,  passed  an 
Act  by  which  sorcery  and  witchcraft  were  made 
felony,  without  benefit  of  clergy.  For  some  years 
the  country  was  witch-ridden,  and  it  is  appalling  to 
think  of  the  hundreds  of  hapless,  ignorant,  and 
innocent  creatures  who  were  cruelly  done  to  death 
under  the  influence  of  this  extraordinary  mania.  \ 


CHAP.   II.]     WITCHCRAFT  IN  THE  17TH  CENTURY.  245 

A  remarkable  case  tried  at  King's  Lynn  in  1606 
is  reported  in  Ho  well's  '  State  Trials/  I  avail  myself 
of  the  summary  furnished  by  Mr.  Inderwick. 

Marie,  wife  of  Henry  Smith,  grocer,  confessed, 
under  examination,  that,  being  indignant  with  some 
of  her  neighbours  because  they  prospered  in  their 
trade  more  than  she  did,  she  oftentimes  cursed  them ; 
and  that  once,  while  she  was  thus  engaged,  the  devil 
appeared  in  the  form  of  a  black  man,  and  willed  that 
she  should  continue  in  her  malice,  envy,  and  hatred, 
banning  and  cursing,  and  then  he  would  see  that  she 
was  revenged  upon  all  to  whom  she  wished  evil. 
There  was,  of  course,  a  compact  insisted  upon :  that 
she  should  renounce  God,  and  embrace  the  devil  and 
all  his  works.  After  this  he  appeared  frequently — 
once  as  a  mist,  once  as  a  ball  of  fire,  and  twice  he 
visited  her  in  prison  with  a  pair  of  horns,  advising 
her  to  make  no  confession,  but  to  rely  upon  him. 

The  evidence  of  the  acts  of  witchcraft  was  as 
follows : 

John  Oakton,  a  sailor,  having  struck  her  boy,  she 
cursed  him  roundly,  and  hoped  his  fingers  would  rot 
off,  which  took  place,  it  was  said,  two  years  after- 
wards. 

She  quarrelled  with  Elizabeth  Hancock  about  a 
hen,  alleging  that  Elizabeth  had  stolen  it.  When  the 
said  Elizabeth  denied  the- theft,  she  bade  her  go  in- 
doors, for  she  would  repent  it ;  and  that  same  night 
Elizabeth  had  pains  all  over  her  body,  and  her  bed 
jumped  up  and  down  for  the  space  of  an  hour  or 
more.  Elizabeth  then  consulted  her  father,  and  was 


246  WITCH,  WARLOCK,  AND  MAGICIAN.      [BOOK  II. 

taken  by  him  to  a  wizard  named  Drake,  who  taught 
her  how  to  concoct  a  witch-cake  writh  all  the  nastiest 
ingredients  imaginable,  and  to  apply  it,  with  certain 
words  and  conjurations,  to  the  afflicted  parts.  For 
the  time  Elizabeth  was  cured ;  but  some  time  after- 
wards, when  she  had  been  married  to  one  James 
Scott,  a  great  cat  began  to  go  about  her  house,  and 
having  done  some  harm,  Scott  thrust  it  twice 
through  with  his  sword.  As  it  still  ran  to  and  fro, 
he  smote  it  with  all  his  might  upon  its  head,  but 
could  not  kill  it,  for  it  leaped  upwards  almost  a  yard, 
and  then  crept  down.  Even  when  put  into  a  bag, 
and  dragged  to  the  muck-hill,  it  moved  and  stirred, 
and  the  next  morning  was  nowhere  to  be  found. 
And  this  same  cat,  it  was  afterwards  sworn,  sat  on 
the  chest  of  Cicely  Balye,  and  nearly  suffocated  her, 
because  she  had  quarrelled  with  the  witch  about  her 
manner  of  sweeping  before  her  door;  and  the  said 
witch  called  the  said  Cicely  '  a  fat-tailed  sow,'  and 
said  her  fatness  would  shortly  be  abated,  as,  indeed, 
it  was. 

Edmund  Newton  swore  that  he  had  been  afflicted 
with  various  sicknesses,  and  had  been  banged  in  the 
face  with  dirty  cloths,  because  he  had  undersold 
Marie  Smith  in  Dutch  cheeses.  She  also  sent  to  him 
a  person  clothed  in  russet,  with  a  little  bush  beard 
and  a  cloven  foot,  together  with  her  imps,  a  toad,  and 
a  crab.  One  of  his  servants  took  the  toad  and  put 
it  into  the  fire,  when  it  made  a  groaning  noise  for  a 
quarter  of  an  hour  before  it  was  consumed,  '  during 
which  time  Marie  Smith,  who  sent  it,  did  endure  (as 


CHAP.   II.]     WITCHCRAFT  IN  THE  17TH  CENTURY.  247 

was  reported)  torturing  pains,    testifying   the    grief 
she  felt  by  the  outcries  she  then  made.' 

Upon  this  evidence — such  as  it  was — and  upon  her 
own  confession,  Marie  Smith  was  convicted  and  sen- 
tenced to  death.     On  the  scaffold  she  humbly  acknow- 
ledged her  sins,   prayed  earnestly  that  God  might 
forgive  her  the  wrongs  she  had  done  her  neighbours, 
and  asked  that  a  hymn  of  her  own  choosing — '  Lord, 
turn  not  away  Thy  face ' — might  be  sung.      Then 
she  died  calmly.     It  is,  no  doubt,  a  curious  fact — if, 
indeed,  it  be  a  fact,  but  the  evidence  is  by  no  means 
satisfactory — that  she   confessed   to   various  acts  of 
witchcraft,  and  to  having  made  a  compact  with  the 
devil ;  but  even  this  alleged  confession  cannot  receive 
our  credence  when  we  reflect  on  the  inherent  absurdity 
and  impossibility  of  the  whole  affair. 

In  1619,  Joan  Flower  and  her  two  daughters, 
Margaretta  and  Philippa,  formerly  servants  at  Belvoir 
Castle,  were  tried  before  Judges  Hobart  and  Bromley, 
on  a  charge  of  having  bewitched  to  death  two  sons 
of  the  sixth  Earl  of  Rutland,  and  found  guilty.  The 
mother  died  in  prison;  the  two  daughters  were 
executed  at  Lincoln. 

THE    LANCASHIRE    WITCHES. 

My  chronological  survey  next  brings  me  to  the 
famous  case  of  the  Lancashire  witches. 

I  have  already  told  the  story  of  the  Dundikes  and 
the  Chattoxes,  and  their  exploits  in  Pendle  Forest. 
In  the  same  locality,  two-and-twenty  years  later, 


248  WITCH,  WARLOCK,  AND  MAGICIAN.      [BOOK  II. 

lived  a  man  of  the  name  of  Robinson,  to  whom  it 
occurred  that  the  prevalent  belief  in  witchcraft 
might  be  turned  to  account  against  his  neighbours. 
In  this  design  he  made  his  son — a  lad  about  eleven 
years  old — his  instrument.  After  he  had  been 
properly  trained,  he  was  instructed  by  his  father,  on 
February  10,  1633,  to  go  before  two  justices  of  the 
peace,  and  make  the  following  declaration  : 

That,  on  All  Saints'  Day,  while  gathering  wild 
plums  in  Wheatley  Lane,  he  saw  a  black  greyhound 
and  a  brown  scamper  across  the  fields.  They  came 
up  to  him  familiarly,  and  he  then  discovered  that 
each  wore  a  collar  shining  like  gold.  As  no  one 
accompanied  them,  he  concluded  that  they  had 
broken  loose  from  their  kennels ;  and  as  at  that 
moment  a  hare  started  up  only  a  few  paces  from  him, 
he  thought  he  would  set  them  to  hunt  it,  but  his 
efforts  were  all  in  vain ;  and  in  his  wrath  he  took  the 
strings  that  hung  from  their  collars,  tied  both  to  a 
little  bush,  and  then  whipped  them.  Whereupon,  in 
the  place  of  the  black  greyhound,  started  up  the  wife 
of  a  man  named  Dickinson,  and  in  that  of  the  brown 
a  little  boy.  In  his  amazement,  young  Robinson  (so 
he  said)  would  have  run  away,  but  he  was  stayed  by 
Mistress  Dickinson,  who  pulled  out  of  her  pocket  '  a 
piece  of  silver  much  like  untoafine  shilling/ and  offered 
it  to  him,  if  he  promised  to  be  silent.  But  he  refused, 
exclaiming :  *  Nay,  thou  art  a  witch !'  Whereupon, 
she  again  put  her  hand  in  her  pocket,  and  drew  forth 
a  string  like  a  jingling  bridle,  which  she  put  over  the 
head  of  the  small  boy,  and,  behold,  he  was  turned 


CHAP.   II.]  THE    LANCASHIRE    WITCHES.  249 

into  a  white  horse,  with  a  change  as  quick  as  that  of 
a  scene  in  a  pantomime.  Upon  this  white  horse  the 
woman  placed,  by  force,  young  Robinson,  and  rode 
with  him  as  far  as  the  Hoar-Stones — a  house  at 
which  the  witches  congregated  together  —  where 
divers  persons  stood  about  the  door,  while  others 
were  riding  towards  it  on  horses  of  different  colours. 
These  dismounted,  and,  having  tied  up  their  horses, 
all  went  into  the  house,  accompanied  by  their  friends, 
to  the  number  of  threescore.  At  a  blazing  fire  some 
meat  was  roasting,  and  a  young  woman  gave  Robin- 
son flesh  and  bread  upon  a  trencher,  and  drink  in  a 
glass,  which,  after  the  first  taste,  he  refused,  and 
would  have  no  more,  saying  it  was  nought.  Pre- 
sently, observing  that  certain  of  the  company  re- 
paired to  an  adjoining  barn,  he  followed,  and  saw  six 
of  them  on  their  knees,  pulling  at  six  several  ropes 
which  were  fastened  to  the  top  of  the  house,  with  the 
result  that  joints  of  meat  smoking  hot,  lumps  of 
butter,  and  milk  '  syleing,'  or  straining  from  the  said 
ropes,  fell  into  basins  placed  underneath  them.  When 
these  six  were  weary,  came  other  six,  and  pulled 
right  lustily  ;  and  all  the  time  they  were  pulling  they 
made  such  foul  faces  that  they  frightened  the  peep- 
ing lad,  so  that  he  was  glad  to  steal  out  and  run 
home. 

No  sooner  was  his  escape  discovered  than  a  party 
of  the  witches,  including  Dickinson's  wife,  the  wife  of 
a  man  named  Loynds,  and  Janet  Device,  took  up  the 
pursuit,  and  over  field  and  scaur  hurried  headlong, 
nearly  overtaking  him  at  a  spot  called  Boggard  Hole, 


250  WITCH,  WARLOCK,  AND  MAGICIAN.      [BOOK  IL 

when  the  opportune  appearance  of  a  couple  of  horse- 
men induced  them  to  abandon  their  quarry.  But 
young  Robinson  was  not  yet  '  out  of  the  wood.7  In 
the  evening  he  was  despatched  by  his  father  to  bring 
home  the  cattle,  and  on  the  way,  in  a  field  called  the 
Oilers,  he  fell  in  with  a  boy  who  picked  a  quarrel 
with  him,  and  they  fought  together  until  the  blood 
flowed  from  his  ears,  when,  happening  to  look  down, 
he  saw  that  his  antagonist  had  cloven  feet,  and,  much 
affrighted,  set  off  at  full  speed  to  execute  his  commis- 
sion. Perceiving  a  light  like  that  of  a  lantern,  he 
hastened  towards  it,  in  the  belief  it  was  carried  by  a 
neighbour ;  but  on  arriving  at  the  place  of  its  shining 
he  found  there  a  woman  whom  he  recognised  as  the 
wife  of  Loynds,  and  immediately  turned  back.  Falling 
in  again  with  the  cloven-footed  boy,  he  thought  it 
prudent  to  take  to  his  heels,  but  not  before  he  had 
received  a  blow  on  the  back  which  pained  him  sorely. 

In  support  of  this  extraordinary  story,  the  elder 
Robinson  deposed  that  he  had  certainly  sent  his  son 
to  bring  in  the  kine  ;  that,  thinking  he  was  away  too 
long,  he  had  gone  in  search  of  him,  and  discovered 
him  in  such  a  distracted  condition  that  he  knew 
neither  his  father  nor  where  he  was,  and  so  continued 
for  very  nearly  a  quarter  of  an  hour  before  he  came 
to  himself. 

The  persons  implicated  by  the  boy  Robinson  were 
immediately  arrested,  and  confined  in  Lancaster 
Castle.  Some  of  them — for  he  told  various  stories, 
and  in  each  introduced  newr  characters — he  did  not 
know  by  name,  but  he  protested  that  on  seeing  them 


CHAP.  IL]  THE   LANCASHIRE    WITCHES.  251 

lie  should  recognise  them,  and  for  this  purpose  he 
was  carried  about  to  the  churches  in  the  surrounding 
district  to  examine  the  congregations.  The  method 
adopted  is  thus  described  by  Webster :  '  It  came  to 
pass  that  this  said  boy  was  brought  into  the  church 
of  Kildwick,  a  large  parish  church,  where  I  (being 
then  curate  there)  was  preaching  in  the  afternoon, 
and  was  set  upon  a  stall  (he  being  but  about  ten  or 
eleven  years  old)  to  look  about  him,  which  moved 
some  little  disturbance  in  the  congregation  for  awhile. 
And,  after  prayers,  I  inquiring  what  the  matter  was, 
the  people  told  me  it  was  the  boy  that  discovered 
witches,  upon  which  I  went  to  the  house  where  he 
was  to  stay  all  night,  where  I  found  him  and  two 
very  unlikely  persons  that  did  conduct  him  and 
manage  his  business.  I  desired  to  have  some  dis- 
course with  the  boy  in  private,  but  they  utterly 
refused.  Then,  in  the  presence  of  a  great  many 
people,  I  took  the  boy  near  me  and  said:  "  Good  boy, 
tell  me  truly,  and  in  earnest,  didst  thou  see  and  hear 
such  strange  things  of  the  meeting  of  witches  as  is 
reported  by  many  that  thou  dost  relate,  or  did  not 
some  person  teach  thee  to  say  such  things  of  thy- 
self ?"  But  the  two  men,  not  giving  the  boy  leave  to 
answer,  did  pluck  him  from  me,  and  said  he  had  been 
examined  by  two  able  justices  of  the  peace,  and  they 
did  never  ask  him  such  a  question ;  to  whom  I  replied, 
the  persons  accused  therefore  had  the  more  wrong.' 

In  all,  some  eighteen  women,  married  and  single — 
the  charge  was  generally  made  against  women,  as 
probably  less  capable  of  self-defence,  and  more  im- 


252  WITCH,  WARLOCK,  AND  MAGICIAN.      [BOOK  II. 

pressionable  than  men — were  brought  to  trial  at  Lan- 
caster Assizes.  There  was  really  no  evidence  against 
them  but  the  boy  Robinson's,  and  to  sustain  it  his 
unfortunate  victims  were  examined  for  the  stigmata, 
or  devil-marks,  which,  of  course,  were  found  in  ample 
quantity.  Against  seventeen  a  verdict  of  guilty  was 
returned,  one  or  two  being  convicted  on  their  own 
confessions — the  most  perplexing  incident  in  the 
whole  case,  for  as  these  confessions  were  unquestion- 
ably false,  they  who  made  them  were  really  lying 
away  their  own  lives.  By  what  impulse  of  morbid 
vanity,  or  diseased  craving  for  notoriety,  or  strange 
mental  delusion,  were  they  inspired  ?  And  whence 
came  the  wild  and  even  foul  ideas  which  formed  the 
staple  of  their  delirious  narratives  ?  How  did  these 
quiet,  stolid,  unlettered  Lancashire  peasant-women 
become  possessed  of  inventions  worthy  of  the  grimmest 
of  German  tales  of  diablerie  ?  It  is  easier  to  ask  these 
questions  than  to  answer  them  ;  but  when  the  witch 
mania  was  once  kindled  in  a  neighbourhood  it  seems, 
like  a  pestilential  atmosphere,  to  have  stricken  with 
disease  every  mind  that  was  predisposed  to  the  recep- 
tion of  unwholesome  impressions. 

The  confession  of  Margaret  Johnson,  made  on 
March  9,  1613,  has  been  printed  before,  but  it  has  so 
strong  a  psychological  interest  that  I  cannot  omit  it 
here.  It  may  be  taken  as  a  type  of  the  confessions 
made  by  the  victims  of  credulity  under  similar  cir- 
cumstances : 

'  Betweene  seven  or  eight  yeares  since,  shee  being  in  her  house 
at  Marsden  in  greate  passion  and  anger,  and  discontented,  and 


CHAP.   II.]  THE    LANCASHIRE    WITCHES.  253 

withall  oppressed  with  some  want,  there  appeared  unto  her  a 
spirit  or  devill  in  the  similitude  and  proportion  of  a  man, 
apparelled  in  a  suite  of  black,  tied  about  with  silke  pointes,  whoe 
offered  her,  yff  shee  would  give  him  her  soule,  hee  would  supply 
all  her  wantes,  and  bring  to  her  whatsoever  shee  wanted  or 
needed,  and  at  her  appointment  would  helpe  her  to  kill  and 
revenge  her  either  of  men  or  beastes,  or  what  she  desired  ;  and, 
after  a  solicitation  or  two,  shee  contracted  and  condicioned  with 
the  said  devill  or  spiritt  for  her  soule.  And  the  said  devill  bad 
her  call  him  by  the  name  of  Memiilion,  and  when  shee  called 
hee  would  bee  ready  to  doe  her  will.  And  she  saith  that  in  all 
her  talke  and  conference  shee  called  the  said  Memiilion  her  god. 

'And   shee   further   saith   that  shee   was   not  at   the  greate 
meetinge  of  the  witches  at  Hare-stones  in  the  forest  of  Pendle 
on  All  Saintes  Day  last  past,  but  saith  shee  was  at  a  second 
meetinge  the  Sunday  after  All  Saintes  Day  at  the  place  aforesaid, 
where  there  was  at  that  time  betweene  thirty  and  forty  witches, 
which  did  all  ride  to  the  same  meetinge.     And  thead  of  the  said 
meetinge  was  to  consult  for  the  killing  and  hunting  of  men  and 
beastes  ;  and  that  there  was  one  devill  or  spiritt  that  was  more 
greate  and  grand  devill  than  the  rest,  and  yff  anie  witch  desired 
to  have  such  an  one,  they  might  have  such  an  one  to  kill  or  hurt 
anie  body.     And  she  further  saith,  that  such  witches  as  have  sharpe 
boanes  are  generally  for  the  devill  to  prick  them  with  which  have  no 
papps  nor  duggs,  but  raiseth  blood  from  the  place  pricked  with  the 
boane,  which  witches  are  more  greate  and  grand  witches  than  they  which 
have  papps  or  dugs   (/).     And   shee   being  further  asked  what 
persons  were  at  their  last  meetinge,  she  named  one  Carpnell  and 
his  wife,  Kason  and  his  wife,  Pickhamer  and  his  wife,  Duffy  and 
his  wife,  and  one  Jane  Carbonell,  whereof  Pickhamer's  wife  is  the 
most  greate,  grand,  and  an orcyent  witch;  and  that  one  witch  alone 
can  kill  a  beast,  and  yf  they  bid  their  spiritt  or  devill  to  goe  and 
pricke  or  hurt  anie  man  in  anie  particular  place,  hee  presently  will 
doe  it.     And  that  their  spiritts  have  usually  knowledge  of  their 
bodies.     And  shee  further  saith  the  men  witches  have  women 
spiritts,    and   women   witches     have   men    spiritts ;   that  Good 
Friday  is  one  of  their  constant  daies  of  their  generall  meetinge, 
and  that  on  Good  Friday  last  they  had  a  meetinge  neere  Pendle 
water-side ;    and  saith  that  their  spirit  doeth  tell  them  where 
their  meetinge  must  bee,  and  in  what  place ;  and  saith  that  if  a 
witch  desire  to  be  in  anie  place  upon  a  soddaine,  that,  on  a  dogg, 


254  WITCH,  WARLOCK,  AND  MAGICIAN.      [BOOK  II. 

or  a  tod,  or  a   catt,  their   spiritt  will   presently  convey  them 
thither,  or  into  anie  room  in  anie  man's  house. 

'  But  shee  saith  it  is  not  the  substance  of  their  bodies  that 
doeth  goe  into  anie  such  roomes,  but  their  spiritts  that  assume 
such  shape  and  forme.  And  shee  further  saith  that  the  devill, 
after  hee  begins  to  sucke,  will  make  a  papp  or  a  dug  in  a  short 
time,  and  the  matter  hee  sucketh  is  blood.  And  further  saith 
that  the  devill  can  raise  foule  wether  and  stormes,  and  soe  hee  did 
at  their  meetinges.  And  shee  further  saiih  that  when  the  devill 
came  to  suck  her  pappe,  he  came  to  her  in  the  likeness  of  a  catt, 
sometimes  of  one  collour,  and  sometimes  of  another.  And  since 
this  trouble  befell  her,  her  spirit  hath  left  her,  and  shee  never  saw 
him  since.' 

Happily,  the  judge  who  presided  at  the  trial  of 
these  deluded  and  persecuted  unfortunates  was  dis- 
satisfied with  the  evidence,  and  reprieved  them  until 
he  had  time  to  communicate  with  the  Privy  Council, 
by  whose  orders  Bridgman,  Bishop  of  Chester,  pro- 
ceeded to  examine  into  the  principal  cases.  Three  of 
the  supposed  criminals,  however,  had  died  of  anxiety 
and  suffering  before  the  work  of  investigation  began, 
and  a  fourth  was  sick  beyond  recovery.  The  cases 
into  which  the  Bishop  inquired  were  those  of  Margaret 
Johnson,  Frances  Dicconson,  or  Dickinson,  Mary 
Spencer,  and  Mrs.  Hargrave.  Margaret  Johnson  the 
good  Bishop  describes  as  a  widow  of  sixty,  who  was 
deeply  penitent.  '  I  will  not  add,'  she  said,  '  sin  to  sin. 
I  have  already  done  enough,  yea,  too  much,  and  will 
not  increase  it.  I  pray  God  I  may  repent/  This 
victim  of  hallucination  had  confessed  herself  to  be  a 
witch,  as  we  have  seen,  and  was  characterized  by  the 
Bishop  as  '  more  often  faulting  in  the  particulars  of 
her  actions.'  Frances  Dicconson,  however,  and  Mary 
Spencer,  absolutely  denied  the  truth  of  the  accusa- 


CHAP.   II.]  THE    LANCASHIRE    WITCHES.  255 

tions  brought  against  them.  Frances,  according  to 
the  boy  Robinson,  had  changed  herself  into  a  dog  ; 
but  it  transpired  that  she  had  had  a  quarrel  with  the 
elder  Kobinson.  Mary  Spencer,  a  young  woman  of 
twenty,  said  that  Robinson  cherished  much  ill-feeling 
against  her  parents,  who  had  been  convicted  of  witch- 
craft at  the  last  assizes,  and  had  since  died.  She 
repeated  the  Lord's  Prayer  and  the  Apostles'  Creed, 
and  declared  that  she  defied  the  devil  and  all  his 
works.  A  story  had  been  set  afloat  that  she  used  to 
call  her  pail  to  follow  her  as  she  ran.  The  truth  was 
that  she  often  trundled  it  down-hill,  and  called  to  it 
in  jest  to  come  after  her  if  she  outstripped  it.  She 
could  have  explained  every  circumstance  in  court, 
4  but  the  wind  was  so  loud  and  the  throng  so  great, 
that  she  could  not  hear  the  evidence  against  her.' 

This  last  touch,  as  Mr.  S.  R.  Gardiner  remarks, 
completes  the  tragedy  of  the  situation.  '  History,'  as 
he  says,  f  occupies  itself  perforce  mainly  with  the 
sorrows  of  the  educated  classes,  whose  own  peers 
have  left  the  records  of  their  wrongs.  Into  the 
sufferings  of  the  mass  of  the  people,  except  when 
they  have  been  lashed  by  long-continued  injustice 
into  frenzy,  it  is  hard  to  gain  a  glimpse.  For  once 
the  veil  is  lifted,  and  we  see,  as  by  a  lightning  flash, 
the  forlorn  and  unfriended  girl,  to  whom  the  inhuman 
laws  of  her  country  denied  the  services  of  an  advocate, 
baffled  by  the  noisy  babble  around  her  in  her  efforts 
to  speak  a  word  on  behalf  of  her  innocence.  The 
very  Bishop  who  examined  her  was  under  the  influ- 
ence of  the  legal  superstition  that  every  accused 


256  WITCH,   WAKLOCK,  AND  MAUICIAN.      [BOOK  II. 

person  was  the  enemy  of  the  King.  He  had  heard, 
he  said,  that  the  father  of  the  boy  Robinson  had 
offered,  for  forty  shillings,  to  withdraw  his  charge 
against  Frances  Dicconson,  "  but  such  evidence  being, 
as  the  lawyers  speak,  against  the  King,"  he  "  thought 
it  not  meet  without  further  authority  to  examine." 

The  Bishop,  however,  like  the  judge,  was  dis- 
satisfied with  the  evidence;  and  the  accused  persons 
were  eventually  sent  up  to  London,  where  they  were 
examined  by  the  King's  physicians,  the  Bishops,  the 
Privy  Council,  and  by  King  Charles  himself.  Some 
medical  men  and  midwives  reported  that  Margaret 
Johnson  was  deceived  in  her  idea  that  she  bore  on 
her  body  a  sign  or  mark  that  her  blood  had  been 
sucked.  Doubts  as  to  the  truth  of  the  boy  Robinson's 
story  being  freely  entertained,  he  was  separated  from 
his  father,  and  he  then  revealed  the  whole  invention 
to  the  King's  coachman.  He  had  heard  stories  told 
of  witches  and  their  doings,  and  out  of  these  had 
concocted  his  ghastly  fiction  to  save  himself  a  whip- 
ping for  having  neglected  to  bring  home  his  mother's 
cows.  His  father,  perceiving  at  once  how  much  might 
be  made  out  of  the  tale,  took  it  up  and  expanded  it ; 
manipulated  it  so  as  to  serve  his  feelings  of  revenge  or 
avarice,  and  then  taught  the  boy  how  to  repeat  the  en- 
larged and  improved  version.  It  was  all  a  lie — from 
beginning  to  end.  The  day  on  which  he  pretended  to 
have  been  carried  to  the  Witches'  Sabbath  at  the  Hoar- 
Stones,  he  was  a  mile  distant,  gathering  plums  in  a 
farmer's  orchard.  The  accused  were  then  admitted 
to  the  King's  presence,  and  assured  that  their  lives 


CHAP.   II.]  THE    LANCASHIRE    WITCHES.  "257 

were  safe.  Further  than  this  Charles  seems  to  have 
been  unable  to  go ;  for  as  late  as  1636  these  innocent 
and  ill-treated  persons  were  still  lying  in  Lancaster 
Castle.  It  is  satisfactory  to  state,  however,  that  both 
the  boy  Robinson  and  his  father  were  thrown  into 
prison. 

Fresh  cases  of  witchcraft  sprang  up  in  the  Pendle 
district,  and  early  in  1636  four  more  women  were 
condemned  to  death  at  the  Lancaster  Assizes.  Bishop 
Bridgman,  who  was  again  directed  to  make  inquiries, 
found  that  two  of  them  had  died  in  gaol,  and  that  of 
the  two  others,  one  had  been  convicted  on  a  mad- 
man's evidence,  and  that  of  a  woman  of  ill  fame; 
while  the  only  proof  alleged  against  the  other  was 
that  a  fleshy  excrescence  of  the  size  of  a  hazel-nut 
grew  on  her  right  ear,  and  the  end  of  it,  being  bloody, 
was  supposed  to  have  been  sucked  by  a  familiar 
spirit.  The  two  women  seem  to  have  been  pardoned ; 
but,  as  in  the  former  case,  public  opinion  set  too 
strongly  against  them  to  admit  of  their  being  released. 

THE   WITCHES    OF    SALMESBURY. 

The  singular  circumstances  connected  with  the 
supposed  outbreak  of  witchcraft  in  Pendle  Forest 
have,  to  a  great  extent,  obscured  the  strange  case  of 
the  witches  of  Salmesbury,  though  it  presents  several 
features  worthy  of  consideration. 

Three  persons  were  accused — Jennet  Bierley,  Ellen 
Bierley,  and  Jane  Southworth — and  their  supposed 
victim  was  one  Grace  Sowerbutts.  In  the  language 

17 


258  WITCH,  WARLOCK,  AND  MAGICIAN.      [BOOK  II. 

of  Mr.  Thomas  Potts,  they  were  led  into  error  by 
1  a  subtle  practice  and  conspiracy  of  a  seminary  priest, 
or  Jesuit,  whereof  this  county  of  Lancaster  hath  good 
store,  who  by  reason  of  the  general  entertainment 
they  find,  and  great  maintenance  they  have,  resort 
hither,  being  far  from  the  eye  of  Justice,  and,  there- 
fore, procul  a  fulmine.''  At  their  trial,  which  took 
place  before  Mr.  Justice  Bromley  at  Lancaster,  on 
.Wednesday,  August  19,  the  evidence  of  Grace  Sower- 
butts  was  to  the  following  effect : 

That  for  the  space  of  some  years  past  (at  the  time 
of  the  trial  she  was  only  fourteen)  she  had  been 
haunted  and  vexed  by  four  women,  namely,  Jennet 
Bierley,  her  grandmother,  Ellen  Bierley,  wife  to 
Henry  Bierley,  Jane  Southworth,  and  a  certain  Old 
Dorwife.  Lately,  these  four  women  drew  her  by  the 
hair  of  her  head,  and  laid  her  on  the  top  of  a  hay- 
mow in  the  said  Henry  Bierley's  barn.  Not  long 
after,  Jennet  Bierley  met  her  near  her  house,  first 
appearing  in  her  own  likeness,  and  after  that  as  a 
black  dog,  and  when  she,  Grace  Sowerbutts,  went 
over  a  stile,  she  picked  her  off.  However,  she  was 
not  hurt,  and,  springing  to  her  feet,  she  continued 
her  way  to  her  aunt's  at  Osbaldeston.  That  evening 
she  told  her  father  what  had  occurred.  On  Saturday, 
April  4,  going  towards  Salmesbury  Butt  to  meet  her 
mother,  she  fell  in,  at  a  place  called  the  Two  Briggs, 
with  Jennet  Bierley,  first  in  her  own  shape,  and  after- 
wards in  the  likeness  of  a  two-legged  black  dog  ;  and 
this  dog  kept  close  by  her  side  until  they  came  to  a 
pool  of  water,  when  it  spake,  and  endeavoured  to 


CHAP.   II.]      THE    WITCHES    OF    SALMESBURY.  259 

persuade  her  to  drown  herself  therein,  saying  it 
was  a  fair  and  an  easy  death.  Whereupon,  she 
thought  there  came  to  her  one  in  a  white  sheet,  and 
carried  her  away  from  the  pool,  and  in  a  short  space 
of  time  both  the  white  thing  and  the  black  dog  de- 
parted; but  after  Grace  had  crossed  two  or  three 
fields,  the  black  dog  re- appeared,  and  conveyed  her 
into  Hugh  Walshman's  barn  close  at  hand,  laid  her 
upon  the  floor,  covered  her  with  straw  on  her  body 
and  hay  on  her  head,  and  lay  down  on  the  top  of  the 
straw — for  how  long  a  time  Grace  was  unable  to 
determine ;  because,  she  said,  her  speech  and  senses 
were  taken  from  her.  When  she  recovered  her  con- 
sciousness, she  was  lying  on  a  bed  in  Walshman's 
house,  having  been  removed  thither  by  some  friends 
who  had  found  her  in  the  barn  within  a  few  hours  of 
her  having  been  taken  there.  As  it  was  Monday 
night  when  she  came  to  her  senses,  she  had  been  in 
her  trance  or  swoon,  according  to  her  marvellous 
story,  for  about  forty -eight  hours. 

On  the  following  day,  Tuesday,  her  parents  fetched 
her  home  ;  but  at  the  Two  Briggs  Jennet  and  Ellen 
Bierley  appeared  in  their  own  shapes,  and  she  fell 
down  in  another  trance,  remaining  unable  to  speak  or 
walk  until  the  following  Friday. 

All  this  was  remarkable  enough,  but  Grace  Sower- 
butts — or  the  person  who  had  tutored  her — felt  it  was 
not  sufficiently  grim  or  gruesome  to  make  much 
impression  on  a  Lancashire  jury,  accustomed  in  witch 
trials  to  much  more  harrowing  details.  She  pro- 
ceeded, therefore,  to  recall  an  incident  of  a  more 

17—2 


260  WITCH,  WARLOCK,  AND  MAGICIAN.      [BOOK  IT. 

attractive  character.  A  good  while,  she  said,  before  the 
trance  business  occurred,  she  accompanied  her  aunt, 
Ellen  Bierley,  and  her  grandmother,  Jennet  Bierley,  to 
the  house  of  one  Thomas  Walshman.  It  was  night, 
and  all  the  household  were  asleep,  but  the  doors  flew 
open,  and  the  unexpected  visitors  entered.  Grace 
and  Ellen  Bierley  remained  below,  while  Jennet 
made  her  way  to  the  sleeping-room  of  Thomas 
Walshman  and  his  wife,  and  thence  brought  a  little 
child,  which,  as  Grace  supposed,  must  have  been  in 
bed  with  its  father  and  mother.  Having  thrust  a 
nail  into  its  navel,  she  afterwards  inserted  a  quill, 
and  sucked  for  a  good  while  ( !) ;  then  replaced  the 
child  with  its  parents,  who,  of  course,  had  never 
roused  from  their  sleep.  The  child  did  not  cry  when 
it  was  thus  abused,  but  thenceforth  languished,  and 
soon  afterwards  died.  And  on  the  night  after  its 
burial,  the  said  Jennet  and  Ellen  Bierley,  taking 
Grace  Sowerbutts  with  them,  went  to  Salmesbury 
churchyard,  took  up  the  body,  and  carried  it  to 
Jennet's  house,  where  a  portion  of  it  was  boiled  in  a 
pot,  and  a  portion  broiled  on  the  coals.  Of  both 
portions  Jennet  and  Ellen  partook,  and  would  have 
had  Grace  join  them  in  the  ghoul-like  repast,  but  she 
refused.  Afterwards  Jennet  and  Ellen  seethed  the 
bones  in  a  pot,  and  with  the  fat  that  came  from  them 
said  they  would  anoint  their  bodies,  so  that  they 
might  sometimes  change  themselves  into  other 
shapes. 

The  next  story  told  by  this  abandoned  girl  is  too 
foul  and  coarse  for  these  pages,  and  we  pass  on  to  the 


CHAP.   II.]       THE    WITCHES    OF    SALMESBURY.  261 

conclusion  of  her  evidence.  On  a  certain  occasion, 
she  said,  Jane  Southworth,  a  widow,  met  her  at  the 
door  of  her  father's  house,  carried  her  to  the  loft,  and 
laid  her  upon  the  floor,  where  she  was  found  by 
her  father  unconscious,  and  unconscious  she  remained 
till  the  next  day.  The  widow  Southworth  then 
visited  her  again,  took  her  out  of  bed,  and  placed  her 
upon  the  top  of  a  hayrick,  three  or  four  yards  from 
the  ground.  She  was  discovered  in  this  position  by 
a  neighbour's  wife,  and  laid  in  her  bed  again,  but 
remained  speechless  and  senseless  as  before  for  two  or 
three  days.  A  week  or  so  after  her  recovery,  Jane 
Southworth  paid  her  a  third  visit,  took  her  away 
from  her  home,  and  laid  her  in  a  ditch  near  the  house, 
with  her  face  downwards.  The  usual  process 
followed:  she  was  discovered  and  put  to  bed,  but 
continued  unconscious — this  time,  however,  only  for 
a  day  and  a  night.  And,  further,  on  the  Tuesday 
before  the  trial,  the  said  Jane  Southworth  came  again 
to  her  father's  house,  took  her  and  carried  her  into 
the  barn,  and  thrust  her  head  amongst  '  a  company  of 
boards '  which  were  standing  there,  where  she  was 
soon  afterwards  found,  and,  being  again  placed  in  a 
bed,  remained  in  her  old  fit  until  the  Thursday  night 
following. 

After  Grace  Sowerbutts  had  finished  her  evidence, 
Thomas  Walshman  was  called,  who  proved  that  his 
child  died  when  about  a  year  old,  but  of  what  disease 
he  knew  not;  and  that  Grace  Sowerbutts  had  been 
found  in  his  father's  barn,  and  afterwards  carried  into 
his  house,  where  she  lay  till  the  Monday  night  t  as  if 


262  WITCH,  WARLOCK,  AND  MAGICIAN.      [BOOK  II. 

she  had  been  dead.7  Then  one  John  Singleton's 
deposition  was  taken:  That  he  had  often  heard  his 
old  master,  Sir  John  Southworth,  say,  touching  the 
widow  Southworth,  that  she  was,  as  he  thought,  an 
evil  woman  and  a  witch,  and  that  he  was  sorry  for 
her  husband,  who  was  his  kinsman,  for  he  believed 
she  would  kill  him.  And  that  the  said  Sir  John,  in 
coming  or  going  between  Preston  and  his  own  house 
at  Salmesbury,  mostly  avoided  passing  the  old  wife's 
residence,  though  it  was  the  nearest  way,  entirely 
out  of  fear  of  the  said  wife.  (Brave  Sir  John !) 

This  evidence,  it  is  clear,  failed  to  prove  against 
the  prisoners  a  single  direct  act  of  witchcraft ;  but  so 
credulous  were  judge  and  jury  in  matters  of  this 
kind,  that,  notwithstanding  the  vague  and  suspicious 
character  of  the  testimony  brought  forward,  it  would 
have  gone  hard  with  the  accused,  but  for  an  acci- 
dental question  which  disclosed  the  fact  that  the  girl, 
Grace  Sowerbutts,  had  been  prompted  in  her  inco- 
herent narrative,  and  taught  to  sham  her  fits  of 
unconsciousness,  by  a  Roman  priest  or  Jesuit,  named 
Thompson  or  Southworth,  who  was  actuated  by 
motives  of  fanaticism. 

4  How  well  this  project,'  exclaims  the  indignant 
Potts,  '  to  take  away  the  lives  of  these  innocent  poor 
creatures  by  practice  and  villainy,  to  induce  a  young 
scholar  to  commit  perjury,  to  accuse  her  own  grand- 
mother, aunt,  etc..  agrees  either  with  the  title  of  a 
Jesuit  or  the  duty  of  a  religious  Priest,  who  should 
rather  profess  sincerity  and  innocency  than  practise 
treachery.  But  this  was  lawful,  for  they  are  heretics 


CHAP.   II.]        THE    WITCHES    OF    S .\LMESBURY.  263 

accursed,  to  leave  the  company  of  priests,  to  frequent 
churches,  hear  the  word  of  God  preached,  and  profess 
religion  sincerely.'  The  horrors  which  he  taught 
his  promising  pupil,  Thompson  probably  gathered 
from  the  pages  of  Bodin  and  Delrio,  or  some  of  the 
other  demonologists.  Potts  continues  : 

4  Who  did  not  condemn  these  women  upon  this 
evidence,  and  hold  them  guilty  of  this  so  foul  and 
horrible  murder  ?  But  Almighty  God,  who  in  His 
providence  had  provided  means  for  their  deliverance, 
although  the  priest,  by  the  help  of  the  Devil,  had 
provided  false  witnesses  to  accuse  them ;  yet  God 
had  prepared  and  placed  in  the  seat  of  justice  an 
upright  judge  to  sit  in  judgment  upon  their  lives, 
who  after  he  had  heard  all  the  evidence  at  large 
against  the  prisoners  for  the  King's  Majesty,  demanded 
of  them  what  answer  they  could  make.  They  humbly 
upon  their  knees,  with  weeping  tears,  desired  him 
for  God's  cause  to  examine  Grace  Sowerbutts,  who 
set  her  on,  or  by  whose  means  this  accusation  came 
against  them.' 

The  countenance  of  Grace  Sowerbutts  immediately 
underwent  a  great  change,  and  the  witnesses  began 
to  quarrel  and  accuse  one  another.  The  judge  put 
some  questions  to  the  girl,  who,  for  the  life  of  her, 
could  make  no  direct  or  intelligible  answer,  saying, 
with  obvious  hesitation,  that  she  was  put  to  a  master 
to  learn,  but  he  had  told  her  nothing  of  this. 

4  But  here,'  continues  Potts,  '  as  his  lordship's  care 
and  pains  was  great  to  discover  the  practices  of  those 
odious  witches  of  the  Forest  of  Pendle,  and  other 


WITCH,  WARLOCK,  AND  MAGICIAN.      [BOOK  IL 

places,  now  upon  their  tribunal  before  him;  so  was 
he  desirous  to  discover  this  damnable  practice  to 
accuse  these  poor  women  and  bring  their  lives  in 
danger,  and  thereby  to  deliver  the  innocent. 

'  And  as  he  openly  delivered  it  upon  the  bench,  in 
the  hearing  of  a  great  audience :  That  if  a  Priest  or 
Jesuit  had  a  hand  in  one  end  of  it,  there  would 
appear  to  be  knavery  and  practice  in  the  other  end 
of  it.  And  that  it  might  better  appear  to  the  whole 
world,  examined  Thomas  Sowerbutts  what  [the] 
Master  taught  his  daughter:  in  general  terms,  he 
denied  all. 

c  The  wench  had  nothing  to  say,  but  her  Master 
told  her  nothing  of  this.  In  the  end,  some  that  were 
present  told  his  lordship  the  truth,  and  the  prisoners 
informed  him  how  she  went  to  learn  with  one 
Thompson,  a  Seminary  Priest,  who  had  instructed 
and  taught  her  this  accusation  against  them,  because 
they  were  once  obstinate  Papists,  and  now  came  to 
Church.  Here  is  the  discovery  of  this  Priest,  and  of 
his  whole  practice.  Still  this  fire  increased  more  and 
more,  and  one  witness  accusing  another,  all  things 
were  laid  open  at  large. 

1  In  the  end  his  lordship  took  away  the  girl  from 
her  father,  and  committed  her  to  Mr.  Leigh,  a  very 
religious  preacher,  and  Mr.  Chisnal,  two  Justices  of 
the  Peace,  to  be  carefully  examined/ 

The  examination  was  as  follows : 

'  Being  demanded  whether  the  accusation  she  laid 
upon  her  grandmother,  Jennet  Bierley,  Ellen  Bierley, 
and  Jane  Southworth,  of  witchcraft,  namely,  of  the 


CHAP.   II.]       THE    WITCHES    OF   SALMKSBURY.  265 

killing  of  the  child  of  Thomas  Walshman  with  a  nail 
in  the  navel,  the  boiling,  eating,  and  oiling,  thereby 
to  transform  themselves  into  divers  shapes,  was  true ; 
she  doth  utterly  deny  the  same :  or  that  ever  she  saw 
any  such  practices  done  by  them. 

'  She  further  saith,  that  one  Master  Thompson, 
which  she  taketh  to  be  Master  Christopher  South- 
worth,  to  whom  she  was  sent  to  learn  her  prayers, 
did  persuade,  counsel,  and  advise  her,  to  deal  as 
formerly  hath  been  said  against  her  said  Grandmother, 
Aunt,  and  Southworth's  wife. 

'  And  further  she  confesseth  and  saith,  that  she 
never  did  know,  or  saw  any  Devils,  nor  any  other 
Visions,  as  formerly  by  her  hath  been  alleged  and 
informed. 

'  Also  she  confesseth  and  saith,  that  she  was  not 
thrown  or  cast  upon  the  hen-ruff  and  hay-mow  in 
the  barn,  but  that  she  went  up  upon  the  Mow  herself 
by  the  wall- side. 

1  Being  farther  demanded  whether  she  ever  was  at 
the  Church,  she  saith,  she  was  not,  but  promised  here- 
after to  go  to  the  Church,  and  that  very  willingly.' 

The  three  accused  were  also  examined,  and  declared 
their  belief  that  Grace  Sowerbutts  had  been  trained 
by  the  priest  to  accuse  them  of  witchcraft,  because 
they  '  would  not  be  dissuaded  from  the  Church/ 

'  These  examinations  being  taken,  they  were  brought 
into  the  Court,  and  there  openly  in  the  presence  of 
this  great  audience  published  and  declared  to  the 
jury  of  life  and  death ;  and  thereupon  the  gentlemen 
of  their  jury  required  to  consider  of  them.  For 


266  WITCH,  WARLOCK,  AND  MAGICIAN.      [BOOK  II. 


although  they  stood  upon  their  Trial,  for  matter  of 
fact  of  witchcraft,  murther,  and  much  more  of  the 
like  nature:  yet  in  respect  all  their  accusations  did 
appear  to  be  practice,  they  were  now  to  consider  of 
them  and  to  acquit  them.  Thus  were  these  poor 
innocent  creatures,  by  the  great  care  and  pains  of  this 
honourable  Judge,  delivered  from  the  danger  of  this 
conspiracy;  this  bloody  practice  of  the  Priest  laid 
open :  of  whose  fact  I  may  lawfully  say,  Etiam  si  ego 
tacuero  clamabunt  lapides. 

'  These  are  but  ordinary  with  Priests  and  Jesuits : 
no  respect  of  blood,  kindred,  or  friendship  can  move 
them  to  forbear  their  conspiracies ;  for  when  he  had 
laboured  treacherously  to  seduce  and  convert  them, 
and  yet  could  do  no  good,  then  devised  he  this 
means. 

1  God  of  His  great  mercy  deliver  us  all  from  them 
and  their  damnable  conspiracies :  and  when  any  of  his 
Majesty's  subjects,  so  free  and  innocent  as  these,  shall 
come  in  question,  grant  them  as  honourable  a  trial, 
as  reverend  and  worthy  a  judge  to  sit  in  judgment 
upon  them,  and  in  the  end  as  speedy  a  deliverance. 

'  And  for  that  which  I  have  heard  of  them,  seen  with 
my  eyes,  and  taken  pains  to  read  of  them,  my  humble 
prayer  shall  be  to  God  Almighty,  Vt  convertantur 
ne  pereant.  Aut  confundantur  ne  noceant.'* 

I  pass  on  to  a  remarkable  trial  for  witchcraft  which 
took  place  at  Taunton  Assizes  in  August,  1626,  one 

*  Potts,   *  Wonderful  Discoverie  of  Witches  in  the  Countie  of 
Lancaster'  (1613). 


CHAP.    II.]  THE    WITCHES    OF    TAUNTON.    '  267 

Edward  Ball  and  Joan  Greedie  being  charged  with 
having  practised  upon  a  certain  Edward  Dinham. 

It  seems  that  the  complainant,  when  under  the 
witch-spell,  possessed  no  fewer  than  three  voices — 
namely,  his  own  natural  voice,  and  two  artificial 
voices,  of  which  one  was  shrill  and  pleasant,  the 
other  deadly  and  hollow.  These  two  voices  belonged 
respectively  to  the  good  and  evil  spirits  which 
alternately  prevailed  over  him.  As  it  is  said  that 
they  spoke  without  any  movement  of  the  lips  or 
tongue,  it  is  probable  the  man  was  a  natural  ventrilo- 
quist, and  made  use  of  his  gift  to  imperil  the  lives  of 
Ball  and  Greedie,  against  whom  he  may  have  enter- 
tained a  hostile  feeling.  He  gave  the  following 
specimen  of  the  conversation  which  took  place 
between  him  and  his  spirits : 

GOOD  SPIRIT.  How  comes  this  man  to  be  thus  tormented  1 

BAD  SPIRIT.  He  is  bewitched. 

GOOD.  Who  hath  done  it  1 

BAD.  That  I  may  not  tell. 

GOOD.  Aske  him  agayne. 

DINHAM.  Come,  come,  prithee,  tell  me  who  hath  bewitched  me 

BAD.  A  woman  in  greene  cloathes  and  a  black  hatt,  with  a 
large  poll ;  and  a  man  in  a  gray  suite,  with  blue  stockings. 

GOOD.  But  where  are  they  1 

BAD.  She  is  at  her  house,  and  hee  is  at  a  taverne  in  Yeohall 
[Youghal]  in  Ireland. 

GOOD.  But  what  are  their  names  1 

BAD.  Nay,  that  I  will  not  tell. 

GOOD.  Then  tell  half  of  their  names. 

BAD.  The  one  is  Johan,  and  the  other  Edward. 

GOOD.  Nowe  tell  me  the  other  half. 

BAD.  That  I  may  not. 

GOOD.  Aske  him  agayne. 

DINHAM.  Come,  come,  prithee,  tell  me  the  other  half. 

BAD.  The  one  is  Greedie,  and  the  other  Ball. 


268  WITCH,  WARLOCK,  AND  MAGICIAN.      [BOOK  II. 

This  information  having  been  obtained,  a  messenger 
is  sent  to  a  certain  house,  where  the  unfortunate  Joan 
is  straightway  arrested.  The  conversation,  if  this 
absurd  rigmarole  can  be  so  called,  was  afterwards 
resumed,  the  man  conveniently  going  into  one  of  his 
'fits  '  for  the  purpose: 

GOOD.  But  are  these  witches  ? 

BAD.  Yes ;  that  they  are. 

GOOD.  Howe  came  they  to  bee  soe  ? 

BAD.  By  discent. 

GOOD.  But  ho  we  by  discent  ? 

BAD.  From  the  grandmother  to  the  mother,  and  from  the 
mother  to  the  children. 

GOOD.  But  howe  aree  they  soe  1 

BAD.  They  aree  bound  to  us,  and  wee  to  them. 

GOOD.  Lett  mee  see  the  bond. 

BAD.  Thou  shalt  not. 

GOOD.  Lett  mee  see  it,  and  if  I  like  I  will  scale  alsoe. 

BAD.  Thou  shalt,  if  thou  wilt  not  reveale  the  contentes 
thereof. 

GOOD.  I  will  not. 

As  usual,  the  Good  Spirit  gets  its  way,  and  the 
bond  is  produced,  drawing  from  the  Good  Spirit  an 
exclamation    of  anguish :  '  Alas  !  oh,  pittifull,  pitti- 
full,  pittifull !     What  ?  eight  seales,  bloody  seales— 
four  dead,  and  four  alive  ?     Ah,  miserable  !' 

DINHAM.  Come,  come,  prithee,  tell  me,  Why  did  they  bewitch 
me? 

BAD.  Because  thou  didst  call  Johane  Greedie  witche. 
DINHAM.  Why,  is  shee  not  a  witche  1 
BAD.  Yes  ;  but  thou  shouldest  not  have  said  soe. 
GOOD.  But  why  did  Ball  bewitche  him  ? 
BAD.  Because  Greedie  was  not  stronge  enough. 

A  messenger  is  now  sent  after  Ball ;  but  on  reach- 
ing his  hiding-place,  he  finds  that  the  poor  man  has 


CHAP.   II.]  THE    WITCHES    OF    TATJNTON.  269 

just  escaped,  and  he  meets  with  people  who  had  seen 
his  flight.  Dinham  and  his  voices  then  join  in  a 
discourse,  from  which  it  appears  that  before  they 
bewitched  Dinham  they  had  been  guilty  of  various 
'  evil  practices,'  and  had  compassed  the  death  of,  at 
least,  one  of  their  victims.  Six  days  afterwards 
Dinham  has  another  '  fit/  and  a  second  unsuccessful 
effort  is  made  to  track  and  arrest  Ball.  Disgusted 
with  this  failure,  the  Good  Spirit  strenuously  opposes 
the  Evil  Spirit  in  his  resolve  to  secure  Dinham's 
soul: 

BAD.  I  will  have  him,  or  else  I  will  torment  him  eight  tymes 
more. 

GOOD.  Thou  shalt  not  have  thy  will  in  all  thinges ;  thou  shalt 
torment  him  but  four  times  more. 

BAD.  I  will  have  thy  soule. 

GOOD.  If  thou  wilt  answer  me  three  questions,  I  will  seale  and 
goe  with  thee. 

BAD.  I  will. 

GOOD.  Who  made  the  world  1 

BAD.  God. 

GOOD.  Who  created  mankynde  1 

BAD.  God. 

GOOD.  Wherefore  was  Christ  Jesus  His  precious  blood  shed  ? 

BAD.  I'le  no  more  of  that. 

Here  the  patient  was  seized  with  the  most  violent 
convulsions,  foaming  at  the  mouth,  and  struggling 
with  clenched  hands  and  contorted  limbs. 

Another  fit  came  off  a  few  days  afterwards,  and  in 
this  Dinham  was  exposed  to  a  double  temptation : 

BAD.  If  thou  wilt  give  me  thy  soule,  I  will  give  thee  gold 
enough. 

GOOD.  Thy  gold  will  scald  my  fingers. 


270  WITCH,  WARLOCK,  AND  MAGICIAN.      [BOOK  II. 


BAD.  If  thou  wilt  give  me  thy  soule,  I  will  give  thee  dice,  and 
thou  shalt  winne  infinite  somes  of  treasure  by  play. 

GOOD.  If  thou  canst  make  every  letter  in  this  booke  [a  Prayer- 
book  which  Dinham  held  in  his  hand]  a  die,  I  will. 

BAD.  That  I  cannott. 

GOOD.  Laudes,  laudes,  laudes  ! 

BAD.  Thou  shalt  have  ladies  enough — ladies,  ladies,  ladies !  .  .  . 

GOOD.  If  thou  canst  make  every  letter  in  this  book  a  ladie,  I  will. 

Here  the  Bad  Spirit  made  an  attempt  to  cast  away 
the  book,  but,  after  a  violent  struggle,  was  defeated ; 
and  then  the  Good  Spirit  celebrated  his  victory  in 
4  the  sweetest  niusicke  that  ever  was  heard.'  Even- 
tually Ball  was  captured,  and  Dinham  then  declared 
that  his  '  two  voices  '  ceased  to  trouble  him.  Greedie 
and  Ball  were  both  committed  for  trial,  but  no  record 
exists  of  their  execution,  and  we  may  hope  that  they 
were  acquitted  of  charges  supported  by  such  absurd 
and  fallacious  evidence. 

Edward  Fairfax,  a  man  of  ability  and  culture — the 
refined  and  melodious  translator  of  Tasso's  Christian 
epic — prosecuted  six  of  his  neighbours  at  York 
Assizes,  in  1622,  for  practising  witchcraft  on  his 
children.  The  grand  jury  found  a  true  bill  against 
them,  and  the  accused  were  brought  to  trial.  But 
the  judge,  who  had  been  privately  furnished  with  a 
certificate  of  their  '  sober  behaviour,'  contrived  so  to 
influence  the  jury  as  to  obtain  a  verdict  of  acquittal. 
The  poet  afterwards  published  an  elaborate  defence 
of  his  conduct.  His  folly  may  be  excused,  per- 
haps, since  even  such  men  as  Raleigh  and  Bacon 
inclined  towards  a  belief  in  witchcraft ;  and  the 
judicious  Evelyn  makes  it  one  of  his  principal  corn- 


CHAP.   II.]  THE    WITCHES    OF    TAUNTON.  271 

plaints  against  solitude  that  it  created  witches. 
Hobbes,  in  his  '  Leviathan/  takes,  however,  a  more 
enlightened  view:  'As  for  witches/  he  says,  'I 
think  not  that  their  witchcraft  is  any  real  power  ;  but 
yet  that  they  are  justly  punished  for  the  false  belief 
they  have  that  they  can  do  such  mischief,  joined 
with  their  purpose  to  do  it  if  they  can.' 

Even  the  stir  and  tumult  of  the  Civil  War  did  not 
suspend  the  persecuting  activity  of  a  degraded  super- 
stition. In  1644  eight  witches  of  Manningtree,  in 
Essex,  were  accused  of  holding  witches'  meetings 
every  Friday  night ;  were  searched  for  teats  and 
devils'  marks,  convicted,  and,  with  twenty-nine  of 
their  fellows,  hung.  In  the  following  year  there 
were  more  hangings  in  Essex  ;  and  in  Norfolk  a 
score  of  witches  suffered.  In  1650  a  woman  was 
hung  at  the  Old  Bailey  as  a  witch.  '  She  was  found 
to  have  under  her  armpits  those  marks  by  which 
witches  are  discovered  to  entertain  their  familiars/ 
In  April,  1652,  Jean  Peterson,  the  witch  of  Wapping, 
was  hung  at  Tyburn  ;  and  in  July  of  the  same  year 
six  witches  perished  at  Maidstone. 

In  1653  Alice  Bodenham,  a  domestic  servant,  was 
tried  at  Salisbury  before  Chief  Justice  Wilde,  and 
convicted.  It  is  not  certain,  however,  that  she  was 
executed. 

In  1658  Jane  Brooks  was  executed  for  practising 
witchcraft  on  a  boy  of  twelve,  named  Henry  James, 
at  Chard,  in  Somersetshire;  in  1663  Julian  Cox,  at 
Taunton,  for  a  similor  offence. 


272  ,    WITCH,  WARLOCK,  AND  MAGICIAN.      [BOOK  II. 

^\      T 

4?  N* 

THE    WITCH-FINDEK  :    MATTHEW    HOPKINS. 

The  severe  legislation  against  witchcraft  had  thus 
the  effect — which  invariably  attends  legislation  when 
it  becomes  unduly  repressive  —  of  increasing  the 
offence  it  had  been  designed  to  exterminate.  (_Jt  was 
attended,  also,  by  another  result,  which  is  equally 
common — bringing  to  the  front  a  number  of  informers 
who,  at  the  cost  of  many  innocent  lives,  turned  it  to 
their  personal  advantage.  Of  these  witch-finders,  the 
most  notorious  was  Matthew  Hopkins,  of  Manning- 
tree,  in  Essex.  When  he  first  started  his  infamous 
trade,  I  cannot  ascertain,  but  his  success  would  seem 
to  have  been  immediate.  His  earliest  victims  he 
found  in  his  own  neighbourhood.  But,  as  his  reputa- 
tion grew,  he  extended  his  operations  over  the  whole 
of  Essex  ;  and  in  a  very  short  time,  if  any  case  of 
supposed  witchcraft  occurred,  the  neighbours  sent  for 
Matthew  Hopkins  as  an  acknowledged  expert,  whose 
skill  would  infalliby  detect  the  guilty  person. 

His  first  appearance  at  the  assizes  was  in  the  spring 
of  1645^  when  he  accused  an  unfortunate  old  woman, 
named  Elizabeth  Clarke.  To  collect  evidence  against 
her,  he  watched  her  by  night  in  a  room  in  a 
Mr.  Edwards' s  house,  in  which  she  was  illegally 
detained.  At  her  trial  he  had  the  audacity  to  affirm 
that,  on  the  third  night  of  his  watching,  after  he  had 
refused  her  the  society  of  one  of  her  imps,  she  con- 
fessed to  him  that,  some  six  or  seven  years  before,  she 
had  given  herself  over  to  the  devil,  who  visited  her  in 
the  form  of  '  a  proper  gentleman,  with  a  hazel  beard/ 


CHAP.    II.J  MATTHEW    HOPKINS.  273 

Soon  after  this,  he  said,  a  little  dog  came  in — fat, 
short-legged,  and  with  sandy  spots  besprinkled  on  the 
white  ground-colour  of  its  tub-like  body.     When  he 
prevented   it    from    approaching    the   woman — who 
declared  it  was  Jacmara,  one  of  her  imps — it  straight- 
way vanished.     Next  came  a  greyhound,  which  she 
called  Vinegar  Tom ;  and  next  a  polecat.     Improving 
in  fluent  and  fertile  mendacity,  Hopkins  went  on  to 
assert  that,  on  returning  home  that  night,  about  ten 
of  the  clock,  accompanied  by  his  own  greyhound,  he 
saw  his   dog   give  a  leap  and   a  bound,  and    hark 
away  as  if  hunting  a  hare ;  and  on  following  him,  he 
espied   a   little   white   animal,    about   the    size   of  a 
kitten,  and  observed  that  his  greyhound  stood  aloof 
from  it  in  fright ;  and  by-and-by  this  imp  or  kitten 
danced  about  the  dog,  and,  as  he  supposed,  bit  a  piece 
from  its  shoulder,  for  the  greyhound  came  to  him 
shrieking   and   crying,    and   bleeding   from   a  great 
wound.     Hopkins  further  stated  that,  going  into  his 
yard  that  same  night,  he  saw  a  Black  Thing,  shaped 
like  a  cat,  but  thrice  as  big,  sitting  in  a  strawberry -bed, 
with  its  eyes  fixed  upon  him.     When  he  approached 
it,  the  Thing  leaped  over  the  pale  towards  him,  as 
he  thought,  but,  on  the  contrary,  ran  quite  through 
the  yard,  with  his  greyhound  after  it,  to  a  great  gate, 
which  was  underset  '  with  a  pair  of  tumbril  strings,' 
threw  it  wide  open,  and  then  vanished,  while  his  dog 
returned  to  him,  shaking  and  trembling  exceedingly. 

In  these  unholy  vigils  of  his,  Hopkins  was  accom- 
panied by  one  '  John  Sterne,  of  Manningtree,  gentle- 
man,' who,  as  a  matter  of  course,  confirmed  all  his 

18 


274  WITCH,  WARLOCK,  AND  MAGICIAN.      [BOOK  II. 

statements,  and  added  the  interesting  detail  that  the 
third   imp   was   called    Sack-and- Sugar.      The   two 
wretches  forced  their  way  into  the  house  of  another 
woman,    named    Rebecca   West,    from   whom    they 
extracted  a  confession  that  the  first  time  she  saw  the 
devil,  he  came  to  her  at  night,  told  her  he  must  be 
her  husband,   and  finally  married  her  !     The  cruel 
tortures  to  which  these  and  so  many  other  unhappy 
females  were  exposed  must  undoubtedly  have  told  on 
their  nervous    systems,    producing    a    condition    of 
hysteria,  and  filling  their  minds  with  hallucinations, 
which,  perhaps,  may  partly  have  been  suggested  by  the 
'  leading  questions '  of  the  witch-finders  themselves. 
It  is  to  be  observed  that  their  confessions  wore  a 
striking  similarity,  and  that  all  the  names  mentioned  of 
the  so-called  imps  or  familiars  were  of  a  ludicrous 
character,    such    as    Prick  -  ear,    Frog,    Robin,    and 
Sparrow.     Then  the  excitement  caused  by  these  trials 
so  wrought  on  the  public  mind  that  witnesses  were 
easily  found  to  testify — apparently  in  good  faith — to 
the  evil  things  done  by  the  accused,  and  even  to 
swear  that  they  had  seen  their  familiars.     Thus  one 
man  declared  that,  passing  at  daybreak  by  the  house 
of  a  certain  Anne  West,  he  was  surprised  to  find  her 
door  open.     Looking  in,  he  descried  three  or  four 
Things3,  like  black  rabbits,  one  of  which  ran  after  him. 
He  seized  and  tried  to  kill  him,  but  in  his  hands  the 
Thing  seemed  a  mere  piece  of  wool,  which  extended 
lengthwise  without  any  apparent  injury.     Full  speed 
he  made  for  a  neighbouring  spring,  in  which  he  tried 
to  drown  him,  but  as  soon  as  he  put  the  Thing  in  the 


CHAP.   II.]  MATTHEW    HOPKIXS. 

water,  he  vanished  from  his  sight.  Returning  to  the 
house,  he  saw  Anne  West  standing  at  the  door  '  in 
her  smock,'  and  asked  her  why  she  sent  her  imp 
to  trouble  him,  but  received  no  answer. 

His  experiments  having  proved  successful,  Hopkins 
took  up  witch-finding  as  a  vocation,  one  which  pro- 
vided him  with  the  means  of  a  comfortable  livelihood, 
while  it  gratified  his  ambition  by  making  him  the 
terror  of  many  and  the  admiration  of  more,  investing 
him  with  just  that  kind  of  power  which  is  delightful 
to  a  ^narrow  and  commonplace  mind.  Assuming  the 
title  of  '  Witch -finder-General/  and  taking  with  him 
John  Sterne,  and  a  woman,  whose  business  it  was 
to  examine  accused  females  for  the  devil's  marks, 
he  travelled  through  the  counties  of  Essex,  Norfolk, 
Huntingdon,  and  Sussex. 

He  was  at  Bury,  in  Suffolk,  in  August,  1645,  and 
there,  on  the  27th,  no  fewer  than  eighteen  witches 
were  executed  at  once  through  his  instrumentality. 
A  hundred  and  twenty  more  were  to  have  been  tried, 
but  the  approach  of  the  royal  troops  led  to  the 
adjournment  of  the  Assize.  In  one  year  this  whole- 
sale murderer  caused  the  death  of  sixty  poor  creatures. 
The  '  test '  he  generally  adopted  was  that  of  '  swim- 
ming,' which  James  I.  recommends  with  much 
unction  in  his  'Demonologie.'  The  hands  and  feet  of 
the  accused  were  tied  together  crosswise,  the  thumb  of 
the  right  hand  to  the  big  toe  of  the  left  foot,  and  vice 
versa.  She  was  then  wrapped  up  in  a  large  sheet  or 
blanket,  and  laid  upon  her  back  in  a  pond  or  river. 
If  she  sank,  she  was  innocent,  but  established  her 

18—2 


276  WITCH,  WARLOCK,  AND  MAGICIAN.      [BOOK  II. 

innocence  at  the  cost  of  her  life ;  if  she  floated,  which 
was  generally  the  case,  as  her  clothes  afforded  a 
temporary  support,  she  was  pronounced  guilty,  and 
hanged  with  all  possible  expedition. 

Another  '  test '  was  the  repetition  of  the  Lord's 
Prayer,  which,  it  was  believed,  no  witch  could 
accomplish.  Woe  to  the  unfortunate  creature  who, 
in  her  nervousness,  faltered  over  a  syllable  or  stumbled 
at  a  word  !  Again  she  was  forced  into  some  awkward 
and  painful  attitude,  bound  with  cords,  and  kept  food- 
less  and  sleepless  for  four-and -twenty  hours.  Or  she 
was  walked  continuously  up  and  down  a  room,  an 
attendant  holding  each  arm,  until  she  dropped  with 
fatigue.  Sometimes  she  was  weighed  against  the 
church  Bible,  obtaining  her  deliverance  if  she  proved 
to  be  heavier.  But  this  last-named  test  was  too 
lenient  for  the  "Witch-finder- General,  who  preferred 
the  swimming  ordeal. 

One  of  his  victims  at  Bury  was  a  venerable  clergy- 
man, named  Lowes,  who  had  been  Vicar  of  Brandes- 
ton,  near  Framlingham,  for  fifty  years.  '  After  he  was 
found  with  the  marks/  says  Sterne,  i  in  his  con- 
fession ' — when  made,  to  whom,  or  under  what  cir- 
cumstances, we  are  not  informed — '  he  confessed  that 
in  pride  of  heart  to  be  equal,  or  rather  above  God, 
the  devil  took  advantage  of  him,  and  he  covenanted 
with  the  devil,  and  sealed  it  with  his  blood,  and  had 
those  familiars  or  spirits  which  sucked  on  the  marks 
found  on  his  body,  and  did  much  harm  both  by  sea 
and  land,  especially  by  sea ;  for  he  confessed  that  he, 
being  at  Lungar  Fort  [Landguard  Fort],  in  Suffolk, 


CHAP.  II.]  MATTHEW   HOPKINS.  277 

where  he  preached,  as  he  walked  upon  the  wall  or 
works  there,  he  saw  a  great  sail  of  ships  pass  by,  and 
that,  as  they  were  sailing  by,  one  of  his  three  imps, 
namely,  his  yellow  one,  forthwith  appeared  to  him, 
and  asked  him  what  he  should  do,  and  he  bade  him  go 
and  sink  such  a  ship,  and  showed  his  imp  a  new  ship 
among  the  middle  of  the  rest  (as  I  remember),  one 
that  belonged  to  Ipswich  ;  so  he  confessed  the  imp 
went  forthwith  away,  and  he  stood  still  and  viewed 
the  ships  on  the  sea  as  they  were  a- sailing,  and  per- 
ceived that  ship  immediately  to  be  in  more  trouble 
and  danger  than  the  rest ;  for  he  said  the  water  was 
more  boisterous  near  that  than  the  rest,  tumbling  up 
and  down  with  waves,  as  if  water  had  been  boiled  in 
a  pot,  and  soon  after  (he  said),  in  a  short  time,  it 
sunk  directly  down  into  the  sea  as  he  stood  and 
viewed  it,  when  all  the  rest  sailed  down  in  safety  ; 
then  he  confessed  he  made  fourteen  widows  in  one 
quarter  of  an  hour.  Then  Mr.  Hopkins,  as  he  told 
me  (for  he  took  his  confession),  asked  him  if  it  did 
not  grieve  him  to  see  so  many  men  cast  away  in  a 
short  time,  and  that  lie  should  be  the  [cause  of  so 
many  poor  widows  on  a  sudden ;  but  he  swore  by 
his  Maker  he  was  joyful  to  see  what  power  his  imps 
had :  and  so  likewise  confessed  many  other  mischiefs, 
and  had  a  charm  to  keep  him  out  of  the  jail  and 
hanging,  as  he  paraphrased  it  himself;  but  therein 
the  devil  deceived  him,  for  he  was  hanged  that  Michael- 
mas time,  1645,  at  Bury  St.  Edmunds.'  Poor  old 
man !  This  so-called  confession  has  a  very  dubious 
air  about  it,  and  reads  as  if  it  had  been  invented  by 


278  WITCH,  WARLOCK,  AND  MAGICIAN.      [BOOK  II. 

Matthew  Hopkins,  who,  as  Sterne  naively  acknow- 
ledges, c  took  the  confessions,'  apparently  without 
any  witness  or  reporter  being  present. 

The  Witch-finder-General,  when  on  his  expedi- 
tions of  inquiry,  assumed  the  style  of  a  man  of 
fortune.  He  put  up  always  at  the  best  inns,  and 
lived  in  the  most  luxurious  fashion,  which  he  could 
well  afford  to  do,  as,  when  invited  to  visit  a  town, 
he  insisted  on  payment  of  his  expenses  for  board  and 
lodging,  and  a  fee  of  twenty  shillings.  This  sum  he 
claimed  under  any  circumstances;  but  if  he  succeeded 
in  detecting  any  witches,  he  demanded  another  fee  of 
twenty  shillings  for  each  one  brought  to  execution. 
Generally  his  pretensions  were  admitted  without 
demur  ;  but  occasionally  he  encountered  a  sturdy 
opponent,  like  the  Rev.  Mr.  Gaul,  of  Great  Staughton, 
in  Huntingdonshire,  who  attacked  him  in  a  briskly- 
written  pamphlet  as  an  intolerable  nuisance.  Hopkins 
replied  by  an  angry  letter  to  one  of  the  magistrates 
of  the  town,  in  which  he  said  :  '  I  am  to  come  to 
Kimbolton  this  week,  and  it  shall  be  ten  to  one  but  I 
will  come  to  your  town  first ;  but  I  would  certainly 
know  afore  whether  your  town  affords  many  sticklers 
for  such  cattle  [i.e.  witches],  or  [is]  willing  to  give 
and  afford  us  good  welcome  and  entertainment,  as 
other  where  I  have  been,  else  I  shall  waive  your 
shire  (not  as  yet  beginning  in  any  part  of  it  myself), 
and  betake  me  to  such  places  where  I  do  and  may 
persist  without  control,  but  with  thanks  and  recom- 
pense/ 

Neither    Mr.   Gaul    nor   the   magistrates  of  Great 


CHAP.   II.]  MATTHEW   HOPKINS.  279 

Staughton  showed  any  anxiety  in  regard  to  the  witch- 
finder's  threat.  On  the  contrary,  Mr.  Gaul  returned  to 
the  charge  in  a  second  pamphlet,  entitled  i  Select  Cases 
of  Conscience  touching  Witches  and  Witchcraft/  in 
which,  while  admitting  the  existence  of  witches — for 
he  was  not  above  the  superstition  of  his  age  and 
country — he  vigorously  attacked  Hopkins  for  accus- 
ing persons  on  insufficient  evidence,  and  denounced 
the  atrocious  cruelties  of  which  he  and  his  associates 
were  guilty.  I  have  no  doubt  that  this  manly 
language  helped  to  bring  about  a  wholesome  change 
of  public  opinion.  In  the  eastern  counties  so  bitter  a 
feeling  of  resentment  arose,  that  Hopkins  found  it 
advisable  to  seek  fresh  woods  and  pastures  new.  In 
the  spring  of  1647  he  was  at  Worcester,  where  four  un- 
fortunates were  condemned  on  the  evidence  of  himself 
and  his  associates.  But  the  indignation  against  him 
deepened  and  extended,  and  he  hastily  returned  to 
his  native  town,  trembling  for  his  wretched  life. 
There  he  printed  a  defence  of  his  conduct,  under  the 
title  of  '  The  Discovery  of  Witches,  in  answer  to 
several  queries  lately  delivered  to  the  Judge  of  Assize 
for  the  county  of  Norfolk  ;  published  by  Matthew 
Hopkins,  witch-finder,  for  the  benefit  of  the  whole 
kingdom.'  His  death  occurred  shortly  afterwards. 
According  to  Sterne,  he  died  the  death  of  a  righteous 
man,  having  i  no  trouble  of  conscience  for  what  he 
had  done,  as  was  falsely  reported  for  him/  But  the 
more  generally  accepted  account  is  an  instance  of 
'poetical  justice' — of  Nemesis  satisfied — which  I 
heartily  hope  is  authentic.  It  is  said  that  he  was 


280  WITCH,  WARLOCK,  AND  MAGICIAN.      [BOOK  II. 

surrounded  by  a  mob  in  a  Suffolk  village,  and  accused 
of  being  himself  a  wizard,  and  of  having,  by  his 
tricks  of  sorcery,  cheated  the  devil  out  of  a  memoran- 
dum-book, in  which  were  entered  the  names  of  all  the 
witches  in  England.  '  Thus,'  cried  the  populace, 
'  you  find  out  witches,  not  by  God's  name,  but  by 
the  devil's.'  He  denied  the  charge  ;  but  his  accusers 
determined  that  he  should  be  subjected  to  his 
favourite  test.  He  was  stripped ;  his  thumbs  and  toes 
were  tied  together ;  he  was  wrapped  in  a  blanket,  and 
cast  into  a  pond.  Whether  he  was  drowned,  or 
whether  he  floated,  was  taken  up,  tried,  sentenced, 
and  executed,  authorities  do  not  agree;  but  they 
agree  that  he  never  more  disturbed  the  peace  of  the 
realm  as  a  witch-finder. 

Butler  has  found  a  niche  for  this  knave,  among 
other  knaves,  in  his  '  Hudibras ' : 

'  Hath  not  this  present  Parliament 
»      A  lieger  to  the  Devil  sent, 
Fully  empowered  to  set  about 
Finding  revolted  witches  out  1 
And  has  he  not  within  a  year 
Hanged  threescore  of  them  in  one  shire  ? 
Some  only  for  not  being  drowned, 
And  some  for  sitting  above  ground 
Whole  days  and  nights  upon  their  breeches, 
And,  feeling  pain,  were  hanged  for  witches.  .  . 
Who  proved  himself  at  length  a  witch, 
And  made  a  rod  for  his  own  breech  ' — 

the  engineer  hoist  with  his  own  petard — happily  a  by 
no  means  infrequent  mode  of  retribution. 

Sterne,  the  witch-finder's  colleague,  not  unnaturally 
shared  in  the  public  disfavour,  and  in  defence  of  him- 


CHAP.  II.]  A    GAOL-DELI V KEY.  281 

self  and  his  deceased  partner  gave  to  the  world  a 
1  Confirmation  and  Discovery  of  Witchcraft,'  in  which 
he  acknowledges  to  have  been  concerned  in  the  detec- 
tion and  condemnation  of  some  200  witches  in  the 
counties  of  Essex,  Suffolk,  Northampton,  Huntingdon, 
Bedford,  Norfolk  arid  Cambridge,  and  the  Isle  of  Ely. 
He  adds  that  '  in  many  places  I  never  received  penny 
as  yet,  nor  any  like,  notwithstanding  I  have  bonds 
for  satisfaction,  except  I  should  sin ;  but  many  rather 
fall  upon  me  for  what  hath  been  received,  but  I  hope 
such  suits  will  be  disannulled,  and  that  when  I  have 
been  out  of  moneys  for  towns  in  charges  and  otherwise, 
such  course  will  be  taken  that  I  may  be  satisfied  and 
paid  with  reason.'  One  can  hardly  admire  sufficiently 
the  brazen  effrontery  of  this  appeal ! 

The  number  of  persons  imprisoned  on  suspicion  of 
witchcraft  grew  so  large  as  to  excite  the  alarm  of  the 
Government,  who  issued  stringent  orders  to  the 
country  magistrates  to  commit  for  trial  persons 
brought  before  them  on  this  charge,  and  forbade 
them  to  exercise  summary  jurisdiction.  Eventually 
a  commission  was  given  to  the  Earl  of  Warwick,  and 
others,  to  hold  a  gaol-delivery  at  Chelmsford.  Lord 
Warwick,  who  had  done  good  service  to  the  State  as 
Lord  High  Admiral,  was  sagacious  and  fair-minded. 
But  with  him  went  Dr.  Edmund  Calamy,  the  eminent 
Puritan  divine,  to  see  that  no  injustice  was  done  to 
the  parties  accused.  This  proved  an  unfortunate 
choice;  for  Calamy,  who,  in  his  sermon  before  the 
judges,  had  enlarged  on  the  enormity  of  the  sin  of 


282  WITCH,  WARLOCK,  AND  MAGICIAN.      [BOOK  II. 

witchcraft,  sat  on  the  bench  with  them,  and  unhappily 
influenced  their  deliberations  in  the  direction  of 
severity.  As  a  result,  sixteen  persons  were  hanged 
at  Yarmouth,  fifteen  at  Chelmsford,  besides  some 
sixty  at  various  places  in  Suffolk. 

Whitlocke,  in  his  '  Memorials/  speaks  of  many 
'  witches '  as  having  been  put  upon  their  trial  at 
Newcastle,  through  the  agency  of  a  man  whom  he 
calls  '  the  Witch-finder.'  Another  of  the  imitators  of 
Hopkins,  a  Mr.  Shaw,  parson  of  Eusock,  came  to 
condign  humiliation  (1660).  Having  instigated  some 
bucolic  barbarians  to  put  an  old  woman,  named  Joan 
Bibb,  to  the  water-ordeal,  she  swam  right  vigorously 
in  the  pool,  and  struggled  with  her  assailants  so 
strenuously  that  she  effected  her  escape.  Afterwards 
she  brought  an  action  against  the  parson  for  insti- 
gating the  outrage,  and  obtained  £20  damages. 

In  1664,  Elizabeth  Styles,  of  Bayford,  Somerset- 
shire, was  convicted  and  sentenced  to  death,  but 
died  in  prison  before  the  day  fixed  for  her  execution. 
It  is  said  that  she  made  a  voluntary  confession— 
without  inducement  or  torture — in  the  presence  of 
the  magistrates  and  several  divines — another  case 
(if  it  be  true)  of  the  morbid  self-delusion  which  in 
times  of  popular  excitement  makes  so  many  victims. 

One  feels  the  necessity  of  speaking  with  some 
degree  of  moderation  respecting  the  credulity  of  the 
ignorant  and  uneducated  classes,  when  one  finds  so 


CHAP.   II.]  AT    BUEY    ST.    EDMUNDS.  283 

sound  a  lawyer  and  so  admirable  a  Christian  as  Sir 
Matthew  Hale  infected  by  the  mania.  No  other  blot, 
I  suppose,  is  to  be  found  on  his  fame  and  character ; 
and  that  he  should  have  incurred  this  indelible  stain, 
and  fallen  into  so  pitiable  an  error,  is  a  problem  by 
no  means  easy  of  solution. 

At  the  Lent  Assize,  in  1664,  at  Bury  St.  Edmunds, 
two  aged  women,  named  Rose  Cullender  and  Amy 
Duny  were  brought  before  him  on  a  charge  of  having 
bewitched  seven  persons.  The  nature  of  the  evidence 
on  which  it  was  founded  the  reader  will  appreciate 
from  the  following  examples : 

Samuel  Pacey.  of  Lowestoft,  a  man  of  good  repute 
for  sobriety  and  other  homely  virtues,  having  been 
sworn,  said :  That  on  Thursday,  October  10  last,  his 
younger  daughter  Deborah,  about  nine  years  old,  fell 
suddenly  so  lame  that  she  could  not  stand  on  her 
feet,  and  so  continued  till  the  17th,  when  she  asked 
to  be  carried  to  a  bank  which  overlooked  the  sea,  and 
while  she  was  sitting  there,  Amy  Duny  came  to  the 
witness's  house  to  buy  some  herrings,  but  was  denied. 
Twice  more  she  called,  but  being  always  denied,  went 
away  grumbling  and  discontented.  At  this  instant 
of  time  the  child  was  seized  with  terrible  fits ;  com- 
plained of  a  pain  in  her  stomach,  as  if  she  were  being 
pricked  with  pins,  shrieking  out  '  with  a  voice  like  a 
whelp/  and  thus  continuing  until  the  30th.  This 
witness  added  that  Amy  Duny,  being  known  as  a 
witch,  and  his  child  having,  in  the  intervals  of  her 
fits,  constantly  exclaimed  against  her  as  the  cause  of 
her  sufferings,  saying  that  the  said  Amy  did  appear 


284  WITCH,  WARLOCK,  AND  MAGICIAN.      [BOOK  II. 

to  her  and  frighten  her,  he  began  to  suspect  the  said 
Amy,  and  accused  her  in  plain  terms  of  injuring  his 
child,  and  got  her  '  set  in  the  stocks.'  Two  days 
afterwards,  his  daughter  Elizabeth  was  seized  with 
similar  fits ;  and  both  she  and  her  sister  complained 
that  they  were  tormented  by  various  persons  in  the 
town  of  bad  character,  but  more  particularly  by 
Amy  Duny,  and  by  another  reputed  witch,  Rose 
Cullender. 

Another  witness  deposed  that  she  had  heard  the 
two  children  cry  out  against  these  persons,  who,  they 
said,  threatened  to  increase  their  torments  tenfold  if 
they  told  tales  of  them.  '  At  some  times  the  children 
would  see  Things  run  up  and  down  the  house  in  the 
appearance  of  mice;  and  one  of  them  suddenly 
snapped  one  with  the  tongs,  and  threw  it  in  the  fire, 
and  it  screeched  out  like  a  bat.  At  another  time,  the 
younger  child,  being  out  of  her  fits,  went  out  of  doors 
to  take  a  little  fresh  air,  and  presently  a  little  Thing 
like  a  bee  flew  upon  her  face,  and  would  have  gone 
into  her  mouth,  whereupon  the  child  ran  in  all  haste 
to  the  door  to  get  into  the  house  again,  shrieking  out 
in  a  most  terrible  manner ;  whereupon  this  deponent 
made  haste  to  come  to  her,  but  before  she  could  reach 
her,  the  child  fell  into  her  swooning  fit,  and,  at  last, 
with  much  pain  and  straining,  vomited  up  a  twopenny 
nail  with  a  broad  head ;  and  after  that  the  child  had 
raised  up  the  nail  she  came  to  her  understanding,  and 
being  demanded  by  this  deponent  how  she  came  by 
this  nail,  she  answered  that  the  bee  brought  this  nail 
and  forced  it  into  her  mouth.' 


CHAP.   II.]  AT    BURY   ST.    EDMUNDS.  285 

Such  evidence  as  this  failing  to  satisfy  Serjeant 
Keeling,  and  several  magistrates  who  were  present, 
of  the  guilt  of  the  accused,  it  was  resolved  to  resort 
to  demonstration  by  experiment.  The  persons  be- 
witched were  brought  into  court  to  touch  the  two 
old  women;  and  it  was  observed  (says  Hutchinson) 
that  when  the  former  were  in  the  midst  of  their  fits, 
and  to  all  men's  apprehension  wholly  deprived  of  all 
sense  and  understanding,  closing  their  fists  in  such  a 
manner  as  that  the  strongest  man  could  not  force 
them  open,  yet,  at  the  least  touch  of  one  of  the 
supposed  witches — Eose  Cullender,  by  name — they 
would  suddenly  shriek  out,  opening  their  hands, 
which  accident  would  not  happen  at  any  other 
person's  touch.  i  And  lest  they  might  privately  see 
when  they  were  touched  by  the  said  Eose  Cullender, 
they  were  blinded  with  their  own  aprons,  and  the 
touching  took  the  same  effect  as  before.  There  was 
an  ingenious  person  that  objected  there  might  be  a 
great  fallacy  in  this  experiment,  and  there  ought  not 
to  be  any  stress  put  upon  this  to  convict  the  parties, 
for  the  children  might  counterfeit  this  their  dis- 
temper, and,  perceiving  wrhat  was  done  to  them,  they 
might  in  such  manner  suddenly  alter  the  erection 
and  gesture  of  their  bodies,  on  purpose  to  induce 
persons  to  believe  that  they  were  not  natural,  but 
wrought  strangely  by  the  touch  of  the  prisoners. 
Wherefore,  to  avoid  this  scruple,  it  was  privately 
desired  by  the  judge  that  the  Lord  Cornwallis,  Sir 
Edmund  Bacon,  and  Mr.  Serjeant  Keeling,  and  some 
other  gentleman  then  in  court,  would  attend  one  of 


286  WITCH,  WARLOCK,  AND  MAGICIAN.      [BOOK  II. 

the  distempered  persons  in  the  farthest  part  of  the 
hall  whilst  she  was  in  her  fits,  and  then  to  send  for 
one  of  the  witches  to  try  what  would  then  happen, 
which  they  did  accordingly  ;  and  Amy  Duny  was 
brought  from  the  bar,  and  conveyed  to  the  maid. 
They  then  put  an  apron  before  her  eyes ;  and  then 
one  other  person  touched  her  hand,  which  produced 
the  same  effect  as  the  touch  of  the  witch  did  in  the 
court.  Whereupon  the  gentlemen  returned,  openly 
protesting  that  they  did  believe  the  whole  transaction 
of  the  business  was  a  mere  imposture.'  As,  in  truth, 
it  was. 

It  is  remarkable  that  Sir  Matthew  Hale  was  still 
unconvinced.  He  invited  the  opinion  of  Sir  Thomas 
Browne,  a  man  of  great  learning  and  ability — the 
author  of  the  '  Eeligio  Medici,'  and  other  justly 
famous  works  —  who  admitted  that  the  fits  were 
natural,  but  thought  them  '  heightened  by  the  devil 
co-operating  with  the  malice  of  the  witches,  at  whose 
instance  he  did  the  villanies/  Sir  Matthew  then 
charged  the  jury.  There  were,  he  said,  two  questions 
to  be  considered  :  First,  whether  or  not  these 
children  were  bewitched  ?  And,  second,  whether 
the  prisoners  at  the  bar  had  been  guilty  of  bewitching 
them  ?  That  there  were  such  creatures  as  witches,  he 
did  not  doubt;  and  he  appealed  to  the  Scriptures, 
which  had  affirmed  so  much,  and  also  to  the  wisdom 
of  all  nations,  which  had  enacted  laws  against  such 
persons.  Such,  too,  he  said,  had  been  the  judgment 
of  this  kingdom,  as  appeared  by  that  Act  of  Parlia- 
ment which  had  provided  punishment  proportionable 


CHAP.   II.]  AT   BURY   ST.    EDMUNDS.  287 

to  the  quality  of  the  offence.  He  desired  them  to 
pay  strict  attention  to  the  evidence,  and  implored  the 
great  God  of  heaven  to  direct  their  hearts  in  so 
weighty  a  matter ;  for  to  condemn  the  innocent,  and 
set  free  the  guilty,  was  '  an  abomination  to  the 
Lord.' 

After  a  charge  of  this  description,  the  jury 
naturally  brought  in  a  verdict  of  '  Guilty.'  Sentence 
of  death  was  pronounced  ;  and  the  two  poor  old 
women,  protesting  to  the  last  their  innocence,  suffered 
on  the  gallows.  Who  will  not  regret  the  part  played 
by  Sir  Matthew  Hale  in  this  judicial  murder  ?  It  is 
no  excuse  to  say  that  he  did  but  share  in  the  popular 
belief.  One  expects  of  such  a  man  that  he  will  rise 
superior  to  the  errors  of  ordinary  minds  ;  that  he 
will  be  guided  by  broader  and  more  enlightened 
views — by  more  humane  and  generous  sympathies. 
Instead  of  attempting  an  apology  which  no  act  can 
render  satisfactory,  it  is  better  to  admit,  with  Sir 
Michael  Foster,  that  'this  great  and  good  man  was 
betrayed,  notwithstanding  the  rectitude  of  his  inten- 
tions, into  a  great  mistake,  under  the  strong  bias  of 
early  prejudices.' 

Gradually,  however,  a  disbelief  in  witchcraft  grew 
up  in  the  public  mind,  as  intellectual  inquiry  widened 
its  scope,  and  the  relations  of  man  to  the  Unseen 
World  came  to  be  better  understood.  Among  the 
educated  classes  the  old  superstition  expired  much 
more  rapidly  than  among  the  poorer ;  and  so  we  find 
that  though  convictions  became  rarer,  committals  and 
trials  continued  tolerably  frequent  until  the  closing 


288 


WITCH,  WARLOCK,  AND  MAGICIAN.       [BOOK  II. 


years  of  the  eighteenth  century.  To  the  ghastly  roll 
of  victims,  however,  additions  continued  to  be  made. 
Thus  in  August,  1682,  three  women,  named  Temper- 
ance Lloyd,  Susannah  Edwards,  and  Mary  Trembles, 
were  tried  at  Exeter  before  Lord  Chief  Justice  North 
and  Mr.  Justice  Eaymond,  convicted  of  various  acts 
of  witchcraft,  and  sentenced  to  death.  Before  their 
trial  they  had  confessed  to  frequent  interviews  with 
the  devil,  who  appeared  in  the  shape  of  a  black  man 
as  long  (or  as  short)  as  a  man's  arm  ;  and  one  of 
them  acknowledged  to  have  caused  the  death  of 
four  persons  by  witchcraft.  Some  portion  of  these 
monstrous  fictions  they  recanted  under  the  gallows ; 
but  even  on  the  brink  of  the  grave  they  persisted  in 
claiming  the  character  of  witches,  and  in  asserting 
that  they  had  had  personal  intercourse  with  the 
devil. 

In  March,  1684,  Alicia  Welland  was  tried  before 
Chief  Baron  Montague  at  Exeter,  convicted,  and 
executed* 

To  estimate  the  extent  to  which  the  belief  in 
witchcraft,  during  the  latter  part  of  the  seventeenth 
century,  operated  against  the  lives  of  the  accused, 
Mr.  Inderwick  has  searched  the  records  of  the 
Western  Circuit,  from  1670  to  1712  inclusive,  and 
ascertained  that  out  of  fifty  -two  persons  tried  in  that 
period  on  various  charges  of  witchcraft,  only  seven 
were  convicted,  and  one  of  these  seven  was  reprieved. 
'  What  occurred  on  the  Western/  he  remarks,  '  pro- 
bably went  on  at  each  of  the  several  circuits  into 
which  the  country  was  then  divided ;  and  one  cannot 


CHAP.   II.]  SOME   ACQUITTALS.  289 

doubt  that  in  Norfolk,  Suffolk,  Essex,  Huntingdon, 
and  Lancashire,  where  the  witches  mostly  abounded, 
the  charges  and  convictions  were  far  more  numerous 
than  in  the  West.  The  judges  appear,  however,  not 
to  have  taken  the  line  of  Sir  Matthew  Hale,  but,  as 
far  as  possible,  to  have  prevented  convictions. 
Indeed,  Lord  Jeffreys — who,  when  not  engaged  on 
political  business,  was  at  least  as  good  a  judge  as 
any  of  his  contemporaries — and  Chief  Justice  Herbert, 
tried  and  obtained  acquittals  of  witches  in  1685  and 
1686  at  the  very  time  that  they  were  engaged  on  the 
Bloody  Assize  in  slaughtering  the  participators  in 
Monrnouth's  rebellion.  It  is  also  a  remarkable  fact 
that,  from  1686  to  1712,  when  charges  of  witchcraft 
gradually  ceased,  charges  and  convictions  of  malicious 
injury  to  property  in  burning  haystacks,  barns,  and 
houses,  and  malicious  injuries  to  persons  and  to 
cattle,  increased  enormously,  these  being  the  sort  of 
accusations  freely  made  against  the  witches  before 
this  date.' 

I  think  there  can  be  little  doubt  that  many  evil- 
disposed  persons  availed  themselves  of  the  prevalent 
belief  in  witchcraft  as  a  cover  for  their  depredations 
on  the  property  of  their  neighbours,  diverting  sus- 
picion from  themselves  to  the  poor  wretches  who, 
through  accidental  circumstances,  had  acquired 
notoriety  as  the  devil's  accomplices.  It  would  also 
seem  probable  that  not  a  few  of  the  reputed  witches 
similarly  turned  to  account  their  bad  reputation.  It 
is  not  impossible,  indeed,  that  there  may  be  a  certain 
degree  of  truth  in  the  tales  told  of  the  witches' 

19 


290  WITCH,  WARLOCK,  AND  MAGICIAN.      [BOOK  II. 

meetings,  and  that  in  some  rural  neighbourhoods  the 
individuals  suspected  of  being  witches  occasionally 
assembled  at  an  appointed  rendezvous  to  consult 
upon  their  position  and  their  line  of  operations. 
The  practices  at  these  gatherings  may  not  always 
have  been  kept  within  the  limits  of  decency  and 
decorum  ;  and  in  this  way  the  loathsome  details  with 
which  every  account  of  the  witches'  meetings  are 
embellished  may  have  had  a  real  foundation. 

That  the  judges  at  length  began  persistently  to 
discourage  convictions  for  witchcraft  is  seen  in  the 
action  of  Lord  Chief  Justice  Holt  at  the  Bury  St. 
Edmunds  Assize  in  1694.     An  old  woman,  known  as 
Mother  Munnings,  of  Harks,  in  Suffolk,  was  brought 
before  him,  and  the  witnesses  against  her  retailed  the 
village  talk' — how  that  her  landlord,  Thomas  Purnel, 
who,  to  get  her  out  of  the  house  she  had  rented  from 
him,  had  removed  the  street-door,  was  told  that  '  his 
nose  should  lie  upward  in  the  churchyard '  before  the 
following  Saturday  ;  and  how  that  he  was  taken  ill 
on  the  Monday,  died  on  the  Tuesday,  and  was  buried 
on  the  Thursday.     How  that  she  had  a  familiar  in 
the  shape  of  a  polecat,  and  how  that  a  neighbour, 
peeping  in  at  her  window  one  night,  saw  her  take 
out  of  her  basket  a  couple  of  imps — the  one  black, 
the  other  white.     And   how  that  a  woman,  named 
Sarah    Wager,    having    quarrelled    with    her,    was 
stricken  dumb  and  lame.     All  this  tittle-tattle  was 
brushed  aside  in  his  charge  by  the  strong  common- 
sense  of  the  judge ;  and  the  jury,  under  his  direction, 


CHAP.   II.]  THOSE    ACQUITTALS.  291 

returned  a  verdict  of  '  Not  guilty/  Dr.  Hutchinson 
remarks  :  '  Upon  particular  inquiry  of  several  in  or 
near  the  town,  I  find  most  are  satisfied  that  it  is  a 
very  right  judgment.  She  lived  about  two  years 
after,  without  doing  any  known  harm  to  anybody, 
and  died  declaring  her  innocence.  Her  landlord  was 
a  consumptive-spent  man,  and  the  words  not  exactly 
as  they  swore  them,  and  the  whole  thing  seventeen 
years  before.  .  .  .  The  white  imp  is  believed  to  have 
been  a  lock  of  wool,  taken  out  of  her  basket  to 
spin ;  and  its  shadow,  it  is  supposed,  was  the  black 
one/ 

In  the  same  year  (1694)  a  woman,  named 
Margaret  Elniore,  was  tried  at  Ipswich  ;  in  1695  one 
Mary  Gay  at  Launceston;  and  in  1696  one  Elizabeth 
Hume  at  Exeter ;  but  in  each  case,  under  the 
direction  of  Chief  Justice  Holt,  a  verdict  of  acquittal 
was  declared.  Thus  the  seventeenth  century  went 
its  way  in  an  unaccustomed  atmosphere  of  justice 
and  humanity. 


19—2 


292  WITCH,  WARLOCK,  AND  MAGICIAN.      [BOOK  IT. 


CHAPTER  III. 

THE   DECLINE    OF   WITCHCRAFT   IN   ENGLAND. 

[THE  honour  of  discouraging  prosecutions  for  witch- 
craft belongs  in  the  first  place  to  France,  which 
abolished  them  as  early  as  1672,  and  for  some  years 
previously  had  refrained  from  sending  any  victims  to 
the  scaffold  or  the  stake.  In  England,  the  same  effect 
was  partly  due,  perhaps,  to  the  cynical  humour  of  the 
Court  of  Charles  II.,  where  many,  who  before  ventured 
only  to  doubt,  no  longer  hesitated  to  treat  the  subject 
with  ridicule;  '  Although/  says  Mr.  Wright,  '  works 
like  those  of  Baxter  and  Glanvil  had  still  their 
weight  with  many  people,  yet  in  the  controversy 
which  was  now  carried  on  through  the  instrumentality 
of  the  press,  those  who  wrote  against  the  popular 
creed  had  certainly  the  best  of  the  argument.  Still,  it 
happened  from  their  form  and  character  that  the  books 
written  to  expose  the  absurdity  of  the  belief  in 
sorcery  were  restricted  in  their  circulation  to  the 
more  educated  classes,  while  popular  tracts  in  defence 
of  witchcraft  and  collections  of  cases  were  printed  in  a 
cheaper  form,  and  widely  distributed  among  that  class 
in  society  where  the  belief  was  most  firmly  rooted.  The 


CHAP.  III.]  DECLINE    OF    WITCHCRAFT.  4293 

effect  of  these  popular  publications  has  continued  in 
some  districts  down  to  the  present  day.  Thus  the 
press,  the  natural  tendency  of  which  was  to  enlighten 
mankind,  was  made  to  increase  ignorance  by  pandering 
to  the  credulity  of  the  multitude.' 

I  have  spoken  of  the  seventeenth  century  as  going 
out  in  an  atmosphere  of  justice  and  humanity.  But 
an  ancient  superstition  dies  hard,  and  the  eighteenth 
century,  when  it  dawned  upon  the  earth,  found  the 
belief  in  witchcraft  still  widely  extended  in  England. 
Even  men  of  education  could  not  wholly  surrender 
their  adhesion  to  it.  We  read  with  surprise  Addi- 
son's  opinion  in  The  Spectator,  '  that  the  arguments 
press  equally  on  both  sides,'  and  see  him  balancing 
himself  between  the  two  aspects  of  the  subject  in  a 
curious  state  of  mental  indecision.  'When  I  hear  the 
relations  that  are  made  from  all  parts  of  the  world/  he 
says,  *  I  cannot  forbear  thinking  that  there  is  such  an 
intercourse  and  commerce  with  evil  spirits,  as  that 
which  we  express  by  the  name  of  witchcraft.  But 
when  I  consider,'  he  adds,  'that  the  ignorant  and 
credulous  parts  of  the  world  abound  most  in  these 
relations,  and  that  the  persons  among  us  who  are 
supposed  to  engage  in  such  an  infernal  commerce  are 
people  of  a  weak  understanding  and  crazed  imagina- 
tion, and  at  the  same  time  reflect  upon  the  many 
impostures  and  delusions  of  this  nature  that  have 
been  detected  in  all  ages,  I  endeavour  to  suspend  niy 
belief  till  I  hear  more  certain  accounts  than  any  which 
have  yet  come  to  my  knowledge.'  And  then  he 
comes  to  a  halting  and  unsatisfactory  conclusion, 


294  WITCH,  WARLOCK,  AND  MAGICIAN.      [BOOK  II. 

which  will  seem  almost  grotesque  to  the  reader  of  the 
preceding  pages,  with  their  details  of  succubi  and 
incubi,  imps  and  familiars,  black  cats,  pole-cats,  goats, 
and  the  like :  '  In  short,  when  I  consider  the  ques- 
tion, whether  there  are  such  persons  in  the  world  as 
we  call  witches,  my  mind  is  divided  between  two 
opposite  opinions,  or,  rather  (to  speak  my  thoughts 
freely),  I  believe  in  general  that  there  is,  and  has 
been,  such  a  thing  as  witchcraft,  but,  at  the  same  time, 
can  give  no  credit  to  any  particular  instance  of  it.' 

Addison  goes  on  to  draw  the  picture  of  a  witch  of 
the  period,  '  Moll  White,'  who  lived  in  the  neighbour- 
hood of  Sir  Roger  de  Coverley,  '  a  wrinkled  hag,  with 
age  grown  double.'  This  old  woman  had  the  reputa- 
tion of  a  witch  all  over  the  country;  her  lips  were 
observed  to  be  always  in  motion,  and  there  was  not  a 
switch  about  her  house  which  her  neighbours  did  not 
believe  had  carried  her  several  hundreds  of  miles. 
1  If  she  chanced  to  stumble,  they  always  found  sticks 
or  straws  that  lay  in  the  figure  of  a  cross  before  her. 
If  she  made  any  mistake  at  church,  and  cried  Amen 
in  a  wrong  place,  they  never  failed  to  conclude  that 
she  was  saying  her  prayers  backwards.  There  was 
not  a  maid  in  the  parish  that  would  take  a  pin  of  her, 
though  she  should  offer  a  bag  of  money  with  it.  ... 
If  the  dairy- maid  does  not  make  her  butter  to  come 
so  soon  as  she  would  have  it,  Moll  White  is  at  the 
bottom  of  the  churn.  If  a  horse  sweats  in  the  stable, 
Moll  White  has  been  upon  his  back.  If  a  hare  makes 
an  unexpected  escape  from  the  hounds,  the  huntsman 
curses  Moll  White. 


CHAP,  ill.]  DECLINE    OF   WITCHCRAFT.  295 

'  I  have  been  the  more  particular  in  this  account,' 
says  Addison,  '  because  I  know  there  is  scarce  a 
village  in  England  that  has  not  a  Moll  White  in  it. 
When  an  old  woman  begins  to  dote,  and  grow 
chargeable  to  a  parish,  she  is  generally  turned  into  a 
witch,  and  fills  the  whole  country  with  extravagant 
fancies,  imaginary  distempers,  and  terrifying  dreams. 
In  the  meantime,  the  poor  wretch  that  is  the  innocent 
occasion  of  so  many  evils  begins  to  be  frighted  at 
herself,  and  sometimes  confesses  secret  commerces  and 
familiarities  that  her  imagination  forms  in  a  delirious 
old  age.  This  frequently  cuts  off  charity  from  the 
greatest  objects  of  compassion,  and  inspires  people 
with  a  malevolence  towards  those  poor  decrepit  parts 
of  our  species  in  whom  human  nature  is  defaced  by 
infirmity  and  dotage.'1 

On  March  2,1703,one  Eichard Hathaway, apprentice 
to  Thomas  Wiling,  a  blacksmith  in  Southwark,  was 
tried  before  Chief  Justice  Holt  at  the  Surrey  Assizes, 
as  a  cheat  and  an  impostor,  having  pretended  that  he 
had  been  bewitched  by  Sarah  Morduck,  wife  of  a 
Thames  waterman,  so  that  he  had  been  unable  to  eat 
or  drink  for  the  space  of  ten  weeks  together;  had 
suffered  various  pains;  had  constantly  vomited  nails 
and  crooked  pins;  had  at  times  been  deprived  of 
speech  and  sight,  and  all  through  the  wicked  cunning 
of  Sarah  Morduck ;  further,  that  he  was  from  time  to 
time  relieved  of  his  ailments  by  scratching  the  said 
Sarah,  and  drawing  blood  from  her.  On  these  charges 
Sarah  had  been  committed  by  the  magistrates,  and  was 


296  WITCH,  WARLOCK,  AND  MAGICIAN.      [BOOK  II. 

tried  as  a  witch  at  the  Guildford  Assizes  in  February, 
1701.  It  was  then  proved  in  her  defence  that 
Dr.  Martin,  minister,  of  the  parish  of  Southwark, 
hearing  of  Hathaway' s  troubles  and  method  of  obtain- 
ing relief,  had  resolved  to  put  the  matter  to  a  fair 
test;  and  repairing  to  Hathaway' s  room,  in  one  of  his 
semi-conscious  and  wholly  blind  intervals,  had,  in  the 
presence  of  many  witnesses,  pretended  to  give  to  the 
supposed  sufferer  the  arm  of  Sarah  Morduck,  when  it 
was  really  that  of  a  woman  whom  he  had  called  in 
from  the  street.  Hathaway,  in  ignorance  of  the  trick 
played  upon  him,  scratched  the  wrong  arm,  and 
immediately  professed  to  recover  his  sight  and  senses. 
On  finding  his  deception  discovered,  Hathaway  looked 
greatly  ashamed,  and  attempted  no  defence  or  excuse, 
when  Dr.  Martin  severely  reproached  him  for  his  conduct. 
The  populace,  however,  remained  unconvinced,  and 
when  Dr.  Martin  and  his  friends  had  departed,  accom- 
panied Hathaway  to  the  house  of  Sarah  Morduck, 
whom  they  savagely  ill-treated.  They  then  declared 
that  the  woman  who  had  lent  herself  as  a  subject  for 
experiment  was  also  a  witch,  and  loaded  her  with 
contumely,  while  her  husband  gave  her  a  beating.  It 
further  appeared  that,  on  one  occasion,  when  Hathaway 
alleged  he  had  been  vomiting  crooked  pins  and  nails, 
he  had  been  searched,  and  hundreds  of  packets  of 
pins  and  nails  found  in  his  pockets,  and  on  his  hands 
being  tied  behind  him,  the  vomiting  immediately 
ceased.  Eventually  the  jury  acquitted  Sarah  Mor- 
duck, and  branded  Hathaway  as  a  cheat  and  an 
impostor.  The  lower  classes,  however,  received  the 


CHAP.   III.]  DECLINE    OF   WITCHCRAFT.  297 

verdict  with  contempt,  mobbed  Dr.  Martin,  and 
raised  a  collection  for  Hathaway  as  for  a  man  of 
many  virtues  whom  fortune  had  ill-treated.  A  magis- 
trate, Sir  Thomas  Lane,  who  sided  with  the  mob,  sum- 
moned Sarah  Morduck  before  him,  and  after  she  had 
been  scratched  by  Hathaway  in  his  presence,  ordered 
her  to  be  examined  for  devil-marks  by  two  women 
and  a  doctor.  Though  none  could  be  detected,  his 
prejudice  was  so  extreme  that  he  committed  her  as  a 
witch  to  the  Wood  Street  Compter,  refusing  bail  to  the 
extent  of  £500.  Dr.  Martin,  with  other  gentlemen, 
again  came  to  her  assistance,  and  ultimately  she  was 
released  on  reasonable  surety. 

The  Government  now  thought  it  time  to  support 
the  cause  of  justice,  and,  carrying  out  the  verdict  of 
the  Guildford  jury,  indicted  Hathaway  as  a  cheat, 
and  himself  and  his  friends  for  assaulting  Sarah 
Morduck.  In  addition  to  the  evidence  previously 
adduced,  it  was  shown  that,  being  in  bad  health,  he 
had  been  placed  in  the  custody  of  a  Dr.  Kenny,  a 
surgeon,  who,  desiring  to  test  the  truth  of  his  fasting, 
made  holes  in  the  partition  wall  of  his  compartment, 
and  watched  his  proceedings  for  about  a  fortnight, 
during  which  period,  while  pretending  to  fast,  he  was 
observed  to  feed  heartily  on  the  food  conveyed  to 
him,  and  once,  having  received  an  extra  allowance  of 
whisky,  he  got  tipsy,  played  a  tune  on  the  tongs,  and 
danced  before  the  fire.  At  the  trial  a  Dr.  Hamilton 
was  called  for  the  defence;  but,  Balaam-like,  he 
banned  rather  than  blessed,  for  having  affirmed  that 
the  man's  fasting  was  the  chief  evidence  of  witchcraft, 


298  WITCH,  WARLOCK,  AND  MAGICIAN.      [BOOK 

'  Doctor,'  said  the  Chief  Justice,  e  do  you  think  it 
possible  for  a  man  to  fast  a  fortnight?'  'I  think 
not/  he  replied.  c  Can  all  the  devils  in  hell  help  a 
man  to  fast  so  long?'  'No,  my  lord/  said  the 
doctor  ;  '  I  think  not.'  These  answers  were  con- 
clusive; and  without  leaving  the  box,  the  jury  found 
Hathaway  guilty,  and  he  was  sentenced  by  Chief 
Justice  Holt  to  pay  a  fine  of  one  hundred  marks,  to 
stand  in  the  pillory  on  the  following  Sunday  for  two 
hours  at  Southwark,  the  same  on  the  Tuesday  at  the 
Royal  Exchange,  the  same  on  the  Wednesday  at 
Temple  Bar,  the  next  day  to  be  whipped  at  the 
House  of  Correction,  and  afterwards  to  be  imprisoned 
with  hard  labour  for  six  months. 

Two  reputed  witches,  Eleanor  Shaw  and  Mary 
Phillips,  were  executed  at  Northampton  on  March  17, 
1705  ;  and  on  July  22,  1712,  five  Northamptonshire 

witches,  Agnes  Brown,  Helen  Jenkinson,  A Bill, 

Joan  Vaughan,  and  Mary  Barber,  suffered  at  the  same 
place. 

\  It  is  generally  believed  that  the  last  time  an 
English  jury  brought  in  a  verdict  of  guilty  in  a  case 
of  witchcraft  was  in  1712,  when  a  poor  Hertfordshire 
peasant  woman,  named  Jane  Wenham,  was  tried 
before  Mr.  Justice  Powell,  sixteen  witnesses,  includ- 
ing three  clergymen,  supporting  the  accusation.  The 
evidence  was  absurd  and  frivolous  ;  but,  in  spite  of 
its  frivolousness  and  absurdity,  and  the  poor  woman's 
fervent  protestations  of  innocence,  and  the  judge's 
strong  summing-up  in  her  favour,  a  Hertfordshire 
jury  convicted  her.  The  judge  was  compelled  by  the 


CHAP.   III.]  DECLINE    OF    WITCHCRAFT.  299 

law  to  pronounce  sentence  of  death,  but  he  lost  no 
time  in  obtaining  from  the  Queen  a  pardon  for  the 
unfortunate  woman.  But,  on  emerging  from  her 
prison,  she  was  treated  by  the  mob  with  savage 
ferocity ;  and,  to  save  her  from  being  lynched, 
Colonel  Plumer,  of  Gilson,  took  her  into  his  service, 
in  which  she  continued  for  many  years,  earning  and 
preserving  the  esteem  of  all  who  knew  her. 

But  there  is  a  record  of  an  execution  for  witchcraft, 
that  of  Mary  Hicks  and  her  daughter,  taking  place  in 
1716  (July  28)  ;  and  though  it  is  not  indubitably 
established,  I  do  not  think  its  authenticity  can  well 
be  doubted.' 

In  January,  1736,  an  old  woman  of  Frome,  re- 
puted to  be  a  witch,  was  dragged  from  her  sick-bed, 
put  astride  on  a  saddle,  and  kept  in  a  mill-pond  for 
nearly  an  hour,  in  the  presence  of  upwards  of  200 
people.  The  story  goes  that  she  swam  like  a  cork, 
but  on  being  taken  out  of  the  water  expired  imme- 
diately. A  coroner's  inquest  was  held  on  the  body, 
and  three  persons  were  committed  for  trial  for  man- 
slaughter ;  but  it  is  probable  that  they  escaped  punish- 
ment, as  nobody  seems  to  have  been  willing  to  appear 
in  the  witness-box  against  them. 

Among  the  vulgar,  indeed,  the  superstition  was 
hard  to  kill.  In  the  middle  of  the  last  century,  a 
poor  man  and  his  wife,  of  the  name  of  Osborne,  each 
about  seventy  years  of  age,  lived  at  Tring,  in  Hert- 
fordshire. On  one  occasion,  Mother  Osborne,  as  she 
was  commonly  called,  went  to  a  dairyman,  appropri- 
ately named  Butterfield,  and  asked  for  some  butter- 


300  WITCH,  WARLOCK,  AND  MAGICIAN.      [BOOK  II. 

milk ;  but  was  harshly  repulsed,  and  informed  that  he 
had  scarcely  enough  for  his  hogs.  The  woman  replied 
with  asperity  that  the  Pretender  (it  was  in  the  '45  that 
this  took  place)  would  soon  have  him  and  his  hogs.  It 
was  customary  then  to  connect  the  Pretender  and  the 
devil  in  one's  thoughts  and  aspirations  ;  and  the 
ignorant  rustics  soon  afterwards,  when  Butterfield's 
calves  sickened,  declared  that  Mother  Osborne  had 
bewitched  them,  with  the  assistance  of  the  devil. 
Later,  when  Butterfield,  who  had  given  up  his  farm 
and  taken  to  an  ale-house,  suffered  much  from  fits, 
Mother  Osborne  was  again  declared  to  be  the  cause 
(1751),  and  he  was  advised  to  send  to  Northampton- 
shire for  an  old  woman,  a  white  witch,  to  baffle  her 
spells.  The  white  witch  came,  confirmed,  of  course, 
the  popular  prejudice,  and  advised  that  six  men,  armed 
with  staves  and  pitchforks,  should  watch  Butterfield's 
house  by  day  and  night.  The  affair  would  here,  per- 
haps, have  ended  ;  but  some  persons  thought  they 
could  turn  it  to  their  pecuniary  advantage,  and, 
accordingly,  made  public  notification  that  a  witch 
would  be  ducked  on  April  22.  On  the  appointed 
day  hundreds  flocked  to  the  scene  of  entertainment. 
The  parish  officers  had  removed  the  two  Osbornes 
for  safety  to  the  church  ;  and  the  mob,  in  revenge, 
seized  the  governor  of  the  workhouse,  and,  collecting 
a  heap  of  straw,  threatened  to  drown  him,  and  set 
fire  to  the  town,  unless  they  were  given  up.  In  a 
panic  of  fear  the  parish  officers  gave  way,  and  the  two 
poor  creatures  were  immediately  stripped  naked,  their 
thumbs  tied  to  their  toes,  and,  each  being  wrapped 


CHAP.   III.]  DECLINE    OF   WITCHCRAFT.  301 

in  a  coarse  sheet,  were  dragged  a  couple  of  miles,  and 
then  flung  into  a  muddy  stream.  Colley,  a  chimney- 
sweep, observing  that  the  woman  did  not  sink, 
stepped  into  the  pool,  and  turned  her  over  several 
times  with  a  stick,  until  the  sheet  fell  off,  and  her 
nakedness  was  exposed.  In  this  miserable  state — 
exhausted  with  fatigue  and  terror,  sick  with  shame, 
half  choked  with  mud — she  was  flung  upon  the 
bank  ;  and  her  persecutors — alas  for  the  cruelty  of 
ignorance! — kicked  and  beat  her  until  she  died. 
Her  husband  also  sank  under  his  barbarous  maltreat- 
ment. It  is  satisfactory  to  know  that  Colley,  as  the 
worst  offender,  was  brought  to  trial  on  a  charge  of 
wilful  murder,  found  guilty,  and  most  righteously 
hanged.  The  crowd,  however,  who  witnessed  his 
execution,  lamented  him  as  a  martyr,  unjustly 
punished  for  having  delivered  the  world  from  one  of 
Satan's  servants,  and  overwhelmed  with  execrations 
the  sheriff  whose  duty  it  was  to  see  that  the  behests 
of  the  law  were  carried  out. 

[n     February.     1759,     Susannah     Hannaker,    of 
"mgrove,     Wilts,     was     put     to     the     ordeal     of 
weighing,   but    fortunately   for    herself    outweighed 
the   church    Bible,    against   which    she   was    tested. 
In    June,    1760,    at    Leicester;   in    June,    1785,  at 
Northampton;  and   in   April,  1829,  at   Monmouth, 
persons  were   tried   for   ducking   supposed   witches. 
Similar  cases  have  occurred  in  our  own  time.     On 
September  4,  1863,  a  paralytic  Frenchman  died  of 
an  illness  induced  by  his  having  been  ducked  as  a 
wizard  in  a  pond  at  Castle  Hedingham,  in  Essex. 


302  WITCH,   WARLOCK,  AND  MAGICIAN.      [BOOK  II. 

And  an  aged  woman,  named  Anne  Turner,  reputed 
to  be  a  witch,  was  killed  by  a  man,  partially  insane, 
at  the  village  of  Long  Compton,  in  Warwickshire,  on 
September  17, 1875.  But  the  reader  needs  no  further 
illustrations  of  the  longevity  of  human  error,  or  the 
terrible  vitality  of  prejudice,  especially  among  the 
uneducated.  The  thaumaturgist  or  necromancer, 
with  his  wand,  his  magic  circle,  his  alembics  and 
crucibles,  disappeared  long  ago,  because,  as  I  have 
already  pointed  out,  his  support  depended  upon  a 
class  of  society  whose  intelligence  was  rapidly 
developed  by  the  healthy  influences  of  literature 
and  science ;  but  the  sham  astrologer  and  the  pseudo- 
witch  linger  still  in  obscure  corners,  because  they 
find  their  prey  among  the  credulous  and  the  ignorant. 
The  more  widely  we  extend  the  bounds  of  knowledge, 
the  more  certainly  shall  we  prevent  the  recrudescence 
of  such  forms  of  imposture  and  aspects  of  delusion  as 
in  the  preceding  pages  I  have  attempted  to  describe, 


CHAP.  IV.]         THE   WITCHES    OF   SCOTLAND.  303 


CHAPTER  IV. 

THE   WITCHES    OF    SCOTLAND. 

AMONG  the  people  of  Scotland,  a  more  serious-minded 
and  imaginative  race  than  the  English,  the  super- 
stition of  witchcraft  was  deeply  rooted  at  an  early 
period.     Its   development  was  encouraged  not  only 
by  the  idiosyncrasies  of  the  national  character,  but 
also  by  the  nature  of  the  country  and  the  climate  in 
which  they  lived.     The  lofty  mountains,  with  their 
misty   summits    and    shadowy   ravines — their    deep 
obscure  glens — were  the  fitting  homes  of  the  wildest 
fancies,  the  eeriest  legends;  and  the  storm  crashing 
through  the  forests,  and  the  surf  beating  on  the  rocky 
shore,  suggested   to  the  ear  of  the  peasant  or  the 
fisherman    the   voices    of  unseen   creatures — of  the 
dread  spirits  of  the  waters  and  the  air.     To  men  who 
believed  in  kelpie  and  wraith  and  the  second  sight, 
a  belief  in  witch  and  warlock  was  easy  enough.     And 
it  was  not   until   the   Calvinist  reformers  imported 
into  Scotland  their  austere  and  rigid  creed,  with  its 
literal  interpretation  of  Biblical  imagery,  that  witch- 
craft came  to  be  regarded  as   a  crime.     It  was  not 
until  1563  that  the  Parliament  of  Scotland  passed  a 


304  WITCH,  WARLOCK,  AND  MAGICIAN.      [BOOK  II. 

statute  constituting  '  witchcraft  and  dealing  with 
witches '  a  capital  offence.  It  is  true  that  persons 
accused  of  witchcraft  had  already  suffered  death — as 
the  Earl  of  Mar,  brother  of  James  III.,  who  was 
suspected  of  intriguing  with  witches  and  sorcerers  in 
order  to  compass  his  brother's  death,  and  Lady 
Glamis,  in  1532,  charged  with  a  similar  plot  against 
James  V. — but  in  both  these  cases  it  was  the  treason 
which  was  punished  rather  than  the  sorcery. 

In  the  Scottish  criminal  records  the  first  person 
who  suffered  death  for  the  practice  of  witchcraft  was 
a  Janet  Bowman,  in  1572.  No  particulars  of  her 
offence  are  given ;  and  against  her  name  are  written 
only  the  significant  words,  '  convict  and  byrnt.' 

A  remarkable  case,  that  of  Bessie  Dunlop,  belongs 
to  1576.*  She  was  the  wife  of  an  Ayrshire  peasant, 
Andrew  Jack.  According  to  her  own  statement,  she 
was  going  one  day  from  her  house  to  the  yard  of 
Monkcastle,  driving  her  cows  to  the  pasture,  and 
greeting  over  her  troubles — for  she  had  a  milch-cow 
nigh  sick  to  death,  and  her  husband  and  child  were 
lying  ill,  and  she  herself  had  but  recently  risen  from 
childbed — when  a  strange  man  met  her,  and  saluted  her 
with  the  words,  c  Gude  day,  Bessie  !'  She  answered 
civilly,  and,  in  reply  to  his  questions,  acquainted  him 
with  her  anxieties ;  whereupon  he  informed  her  that 
her  cow,  her  two  sheep,  and  her  child  would  die,  but 
that  her  gude  man  would  recover.  She  described 
this  stranger  in  graphic  language  as  l  an  honest,  wele- 

*  Pitcairn,  *  Criminal  Trials,'  i.  49-58.     This  chapter  is  mainly 
founded  on  the  reports  in  Pitcairn. 


CHAP.   IV.]          THE    WITCHES    OF    SCOTLAND.  305 

elderlie  man,  gray  bairdit,  and  had  ane  gray  coat 
with  Lumbart  slevis  of  the  auld  fassoun ;  ane  pair  of 
gray  brekis  and  quhyte  schankis,  gartaurt  above  the 
knee;  ane  black  bonnet  on  his  heid,  cloise  behind 
and  plane  before,  with  silkin  laissis  drawin  throw  the 
lippis  thairof;  and  ane  quhyte  wand  in  his  hand/ 
He  told  Bessie  that  his  name  was  Thomas  Reid,  and 
that  he  had  been  killed  at  the  Battle  of  Pinkie. 
Extraordinary  as  was  this  information,  it  did  not 
seem  improbable  to  her  when  she  noted  the  manner 
of  his  disappearance  through  the  yard  of  Monkcastle : 
'  I  thocht  he  gait  in  at  ane  narroware  hoill  of  the 
dyke  [wall],  nor  ony  erdlie  man  culd  haif  gaun 
throw;  and  swa  I  was  sumthing  fleit  [terrified].' 

Thomas  Reid's  sinister  predictions  were  duly  ful- 
filled. Soon  afterwards,  he  again  met  Bessie,  and 
boldly  invited  her  to  deny  her  religion,  and  the  faith 
in  which  she  was  christened,  in  return  for  certain 
worldly  advantages.  But  Bessie  steadfastly  refused. 

This  visitor  of  hers  was  under  no  fear  of  the 
ordinance  which  is  supposed  to  limit  the  mundane 
excursions  of  i  spiritual  creatures '  to  the  hours 
between  sunset  and  cockcrow ;  for  he  generally  made 
his  appearance  at  mid -day.  It  is  not  less  singular 
that  he  made  no  objection  to  the  presence  of  humanity. 
On  one  occasion  he  called  at  her  house,  where  she  sat 
conversing  with  her  husband  and  three  tailors,  and, 
invisible  to  them,  plucked  her  by  the  apron,  and  led 
her  to  the  door,  and  thence  up  the  hill-end,  where  he 
bade  her  stand,  and  be  silent,  whatever  she  might 
hear  or  see.  And  suddenly  she  beheld  twelve 

20 


306  WITCH,  WARLOCK,  AND  MAGICIAN.       [BOOK  II. 

persons,  eight  women  and  four  men ;  the  men  clad 
in  gentlemen's  clothing,  and  the  women  with  plaids 
round  about  them,  very  seemly  to  look  at.  Thomas 
was  among  them.  They  bade  her  sit  down,  and 
said :  l  Welcome,  Bessie ;  wilt  thou  go  with  us  7  But 
she  made  no  answer,  and  after  some  conversation 
among  themselves,  they  disappeared  in  a  hideous 
whirlwind. 

When  Thomas  returned,  he  informed  her  that  the 
persons  she  had  seen  were  the  '  good  wights,'  who 
dwell  in  the  Court  of  Faery,  and  he  brought  her  an 
invitation  to  accompany  them  thither — an  invitation 
which  he  repeated  with  much  earnestness.  She 
answered,  with  true  Scotch  caution :  '  She  saw  no 
profit  to  gang  that  kind  of  gates,  unless  she  knew 
wherefore.' 

'  Seest  thou  not  me,'  he  rejoined,  c  worth  meat  and 
worth  clothes,  and  good  enough  like  in  person  ?' 

The  prospect,  however,  could  not  beguile  her ;  and 
she  continued  firm  in  her  simple  resolve  to  dwell 
with  her  husband  and  bairns,  whom  she  had  no  wish 
to  abandon.  Off  went  Thomas  in  a  storm  of  anger ; 
but  before  long  he  recovered  his  temper,  and 
resumed  his  visits,  showing  himself  willing  to  '  fetch 
and  carry '  at  her  request,  and  always  treating  her 
with  the  deference  due  to  a  wife  and  mother.  The 
only  benefit  she  derived  from  this  friendship  was,  she 
said,  the  means  of  curing  diseases  and  recovering 
stolen  property,  so  that  her  witchcraft  was  of  the 
simplest,  innocentest  kind.  There  was  no  compact 
with  the  devil,  and  it  injured  nobody — except  doctors 


CHAP.   IV.]          THE    WITCHES    OF    SCOTLAND.  307 

and  thieves.  Yet  for  yielding  to  this  hallucination — 
the  product  of  a  vivid  imagination,  stimulated,  we 
suspect,  by  much  solitary  reverie — Bessie  Dunlop 
was  '  convyct  and  byrnt.'  Mayhap,  as  she  was  led 
to  the  death-fire,  she  may  have  dreamecl  that  she  had 
done  better  to  have  gone  with  Thomas  Reid  to  the 
Court  of  Faery  ! 

The  combination  of  the  fairy  folklore  with  the 
gloomier  inventions  of  witchcraft  occurs  again  in  the 
case  of  Alison  Pierson  (1588).  There  was  a  certain 
William  Simpson,  a  great  scholar  and  physician,  and 
a  native  of  Stirling.  While  but  a  child,  he  was 
taken  away  from  his  parents  '  by  a  man  of  Egypt,  a 
giant,'  who  led  him  away  to  Egypt  with  him,  '  where 
he  remained  by  the  space  of  twelve  years  before  he 
came  home  again.'  On  his  return,  he  made  the 
acquaintance  of  Alison,  who  was  a  near  relative,  and 
cured  her  of  certain  ailments ;  but  soon  afterwards, 
less  fortunate  in  treating  himself,  he  died.  Some 
months  had  passed  when,  one  day  as  Alison  was 
lying  on  her  bed,  sick  and  alone,  she  was  suddenly 
addressed  by  a  man  in  green  clothes,  who  told  her 
that,  if  she  would  be  faithful,  he  would  do  her  good. 
In  her  first  alarm,  she  cried  for  help,  but  no  one  hear- 
ing, she  called  upon  the  Divine  Name,  when  her 
visitor  immediately  disappeared.  Before  long,  he 
came  to  her  again,  attended  by  many  men  and 
women ;  and  compelling  her  to  accompany  them,  they 
set  off  in  a  gay  procession  to  Lothian,  where  they 
found  puncheons  of  wine,  with  drinking-cups,  and 

20—2 


308  WITCH,  WARLOCK,  AND  MAGICIAN.      [BOOK  II. 

enjoyed  themselves  right  heartily.  Thenceforward 
she  was  on  the  friendliest  terms  with  the '  good  neigh- 
bours/ even  visiting  the  Fairy  Queen  at  her  court, 
where,  according  to  her  own  account,  she  was  made 
much  of,  was  treated,  indeed,  as  '  one  of  themselves/ 
and  allowed  to  see  them  compounding  wonderful 
healing- salves  in  miniature  pans  over  tiny  fires. 

It  would  seem  that  this  woman  had  acquired  a  con- 
siderable knowledge  of  l  herbs  and  simples/  and  that 
the  medicines  she  made  up  effected  remarkable  cures. 
No  doubt  it  was  for  the  purpose  of  enhancing  the 
value  of  her  concoctions  that  she  professed  to  have 
obtained  the  secret  of  them  from  the  fairies.  So  great 
was  her  repute  for  medicinal  skill,  that  the  Archbishop 
of  St.  Andrews  sought  her  advice  in  a  dangerous 
illness,  and,  by  her  directions,  ate  '  a  sodden  food/ 
and  at  two  draughts  absorbed  a  quart  of  good  claret 
wine,  which  she  had  previously  medicated,  greatly 
benefiting  thereby. 

Alison  had  a  fertile  fancy  and  a  fluent  tongue,  and 
told  stories  of  the  fairies  and  their  doings  which  did 
credit  to  her  invention.  It  does  not  appear  that  she 
injured  anybody,  except,  perhaps,  by  her  drugs,  but, 
then,  even  the  faculty  sometimes  do  that!  But,  like 
Bessie  Dunlop,  she  was  convicted  of  witchcraft,  and 
burned.  The  surprising  thing  about  this  and  similar 
cases  is,  that  the  poor  woman  should  have  assisted  in 
her  own  condemnation  by  devising  such  extraordinary 
fictions.  What  was  the  use  of  them  ?  A  prisoner  on 
a  charge  which,  if  proved  against  her,  meant  a  terrible 
death,  what  object  did  she  expect  to  gain  ?  Was  it 


CHAP.   IV.]          THE    WITCHES    OF    SCOTLAND.  309 

all  done  for  the  sake  of  the  temporary  surprise  and 
astonishment  her  tale  created  ?  that  she  might  be 
the  heroine  of  an  hour  ? — Men  have,  we  know,  their 
strange  ambitions,  but  if  this  were  Alison  Pier  son's, 
it  was  one  of  the  very  strangest. 

In  the  next  case  I  shall  bring  forward,  that  of 
Dame  Fowlis,  we  come  upon  the  trail  of  actual  crime. 
Dame  Fowlis,  second  wife  of  the  chief  of  the  clan 
Munro,  was  by  birth  a  Roise  or  Ross,  of  Balnagown. 
To  effect  the  aggrandisement  of  her  own  family,  she 
plotted  the  death  of  Robert,  her  husband's  eldest  son, 
in  order  to  marry  his  wealthy  widow  to  her  brother, 
George  Roise  or  Ross,  laird  of  Balnagown  ;  but  as 
he,  too,  was  married,  it  was  necessary  to  get  rid  of  his 
wife  also.  For  this  '  double  event/  she  employed,  with 
little  attempt  at  concealment,  three  ' notorious  witches' 
—Agnes  Ro}^,  Christian  Roy,  and  Marjory  Nayre 
Mac Allister,  alias  Loskie  Loncart — besides  one  William 
MacGillivordam,  and  several  other  persons  of  dubious 
reputation.  About  Midsummer,  1576,  Agnes  Roy 
was  despatched  to  bring  Loskie  Loncart  into  Darne 
Fowlis7  presence.  The  result  of  this  interview  was 
soon  apparent.  Clay  images  of  the  two  doomed 
individuals  were  made,  and  exposed  to  the  usual 
sorceries  ;  while  MacGillivordam  obtained  a  supply  of 
poison  from  Aberdeen,  which  the  cook  was  bribed  to 
put  into  a  dish  intended  for  the  lady  of  Balnagown' s 
table.  It  did  not  prove  mortal,  as  anticipated,  but 
afflicted  the  unfortunate  lady  with  a  long  and  severe 
illness.  Dame  Fowlis,  however,  felt  no  remorse,  but 


310  WITCH,  WARLOCK,  AND  MAGICIAN.      [BOOK  II. 

continued  her  plots,  gradually  widening  their  scope 
until  she  resolved  to  kill  all  her  husband's  children  by 
his  first  wife,  in  order  to  secure  the  inheritance  for 
her  own.  In  May,  1577,  she  instructed  Macgilli- 
vordam  to  procure  a  large  quantity  of  poison.  He 
refused,  unless  his  brother  was  made  privy  to  the 
transaction.  I  suppose  this  was  done,  as  the  poison 
was  obtained,  and  proved  to  be  so  deadly  in  its  nature 
that  two  persons — a  woman  and  a  boy — were  killed 
by  accidentally  tasting  of  it. 

Foiled  in  her  scheme,  Dame  Fowlis  resorted  to  the 
practices  of  witchcraft,  and  bought,  in  June,  for  five 
shillings,  '  an  elf  arrow-head ' — that  is,  a  rude  flint 
implement  —  belonging  to  the  neolithic  age.  On 
July  2,  she  and  her  accomplices  met  together  in 
secret  conclave  ;  and  having  made  an  image  of  butter 
to  resemble  Robert  Munro,  they  placed  it  against  the 
wall;  and  then,  with  the  elf  arrow-head,  Loskie 
Loncart  shot  at  it  for  eight  times,  but  each  time  with- 
out success,  a  proof  that  the  familiars  of  the  devil, 
like  their  master,  could  not  always  hit  the  mark. 
Meeting  a  second  time  for  the  same  purpose,  they 
made  an  image  of  clay,  at  which  Loskie  shot  twelve 
times  in  succession,  invariably  missing,  to  the  great 
disappointment  of  all  concerned.  The  failure  was 
ascribed  to  the  elf  arrow-head,  and  in  August  another 
was  procured  ;  two  figures  of  clay  were  also  made,  for 
Robert  Munro  and  for  Lady  Balnagown,  respectively  ; 
at  the  latter  Dame  Fowlis  shot  twice,  and  at  the 
former  Loskie  Loncart  shot  thrice ;  but  the  shooting 
was  no  better  than  before,  and  the  two  images  being 


CHAP.   IV.]         THE    WITCHES    OF    SCOTLAND.  311 

accidentally  broken,  the  charm  was  destroyed.  It 
was  proposed  to  try  poison  again,  but  by  this  time 
the  authorities  had  gained  information  of  what  was 
going  on,  and  towards  the  end  of  November,  Christian 
Roy,  who  had  been  present  at  the  third  meeting,  was 
arrested.  Being  put  to  the  torture,  she  confessed 
everything,  and,  together  with  some  of  her  con- 
federates, was  convicted  of  witchcraft  and  burnt. 
Dame  Fowlis,  who  assuredly  was  not  the  least  guilty 
person,  escaped  to  Caithness,  but,  after  remaining  in 
concealment  for  nine  months,  was  allowed  to  return  to 
her  home.  In  1588,  her  husband  died,  and  was 
succeeded  in  his  estates  by  Robert  Munro,  who 
revived  the  charge  of  witchcraft  against  his  step- 
mother, and  obtained  a  commission  for  her  examina- 
tion and  that  of  her  surviving  accomplices.  Dame 
Fowlis  was  put  on  her  trial  on  July  22,  1590  ;  but  she 
had  money  and  friends,  and  contrived  to  obtain  a  ver- 
dict of  acquittal. 

It  is  one  of  the  most  remarkable  features  of  this  re- 
markable case  that,  as  soon  as  her  acquittal  was  pro- 
nounced, a  new  trial  was  opened,  in  which  the  defendant 
was  her  other  stepson,  Hector  Munro,*  who  had  been, 
only  an  hour  before,  the  principal  witness  against  her. 
The  allegations  against  him  were:  first,  that,  during  the 
sore  sickness  of  his  brother,  in  the  summer  of  1588,  he 
had  consulted  with  '  three  notorious  and  common 
witches'  respecting  the  best  means  of  curing  him,  and 
had  sheltered  them  for  several  days,  until  compelled  by 
his  father  to  send  them  about  their  business;  and, 
*  Pitcaini,  ut  ante,  i.  192,  202,  285. 


312  WITCH,  WARLOCK,  AND  MAGICIAN.      [BOOK  II. 

second,  that  falling  ill  himself,  in  January,  1559,  he 
had  caused  a  certain  Marion  Maclngaruch,  c  one  of  the 
most  notorious  and  rank  witches  in  the  whole  realm/ 
to  be  brought  to  him,  and  who,  after  administering 
three  draughts  of  water  out  of  three  stones  which  she 
carried  with  her,  declared  that  his  sole  chance  of 
recovery  lay  in  the  sacrifice  of  '  the  principal  man  of 
his  blood.'  After  due  consultation,  they  decided  that 
this  vicarious  sufferer  must  be  George  Munro.  his 
step  -  brother,  the  eldest  son  of  Dame  Fowlis. 
Messengers  were  accordingly  sent  in  search  of  him. 
Apprehending  no  evil,  he  obeyed  the  call,  and  five 
days  afterwards  arrived  at  the  house  of  Hector 
Munro.  Following  the  directions  of  the  witch, 
Hector  received  his  brother  in  silence,  giving  him  his 
left  hand,  and  taking  him  by  the  right  hand,  and 
uttering  no  word  of  greeting  until  he  had  spoken. 
George,  astounded  by  the  dullness  of  his  reception, 
which  he  could  not  but  contrast  with  the  warmth  of 
the  invitations,  remained  in  his  brother's  sick-room  an 
hour  without  speaking.  At  last  he  asked  Hector  how 
he  felt.  i  The  better  that  you  have  come  to  visit 
me,'  replied  Hector,  and  then  was  again  silent,  for  so 
the  witch  had  ordained.  An  hour  after  midnight 
appeared  Marion  Maclngaruch,  with  several  assist- 
ants; and,  arming  themselves  with  spades,  they  re- 
paired to  a  nook  of  ground  at  the  sea-side,  situated 
between  the  boundaries  of  the  estates  of  the  two 
lairds,  and  there,  removing  the  turf,  they  dug  a  grave 
of  the  size  of  the  invalid. 

Marion  returned  to  the  house,  and  gave  directions 


•CHAP.   IV.]          THE   WITCHES    OF    SCOTLAND.  313 

to  her  confederates  as  to  the  parts  they  were  to  play 
in  the  startling  scene  which  was  yet  to  be  enacted. 
It  was  represented  to  her  that  if  George  died 
suddenly  suspicions  would  be  aroused,  with  a  result 
dangerous  to  all  concerned ;  and  she  thereupon  under- 
took that  he  should  be  spared  until  April  17  next 
thereafter.  Hector  was  then  wrapped  up  in  a  couple 
of  blankets,  and  carried  to  the  grave  in  silence.  In 
silence  he  was  deposited  in  it,  and  the  turf  lightly 
laid  upon  him,  while  Marion  stationed  herself  by  his 
side.  His  foster-mother,  one  Christiana  Neill  Day- 
zell,  then  took  a  young  lad  by  the  hand,  and  ran  the 
breadth  of  nine  ridges,  afterwards  inquiring  of  the 
witch  '  who  might  be  her  choice/  and  receiving  for 
answer,  i  That  Hector  was  her  choice  to  live,  and  his 
brother  George  to  die  for  him.'  This  ceremony  was 
thrice  repeated,  and  the  sick  man  was  then  taken 
from  the  grave,  and  carried  home,  the  most  absolute 
silence  still  being  maintained. 

Such  an  experience  on  a  bitter  January  night 
might  well  have  proved  fatal  to  the  subject  of  it ; 
but,  strange  to  say,  Hector  Munro  recovered — - 
probably  from  the  effect  on  his  imagination  of  rites 
so  peculiar  and  impressive  ;  whereas,  in  the  month 
•of  April,  George  Munro  was  seized  with  a  grievous 
illness,  of  which,  in  the  following  June,  he  died. 
Grateful  for  the  cure  she  had  effected,  Hector  received 
the  witch  Marion  into  high  favour,  installing  her  at 
his  uncle's  house  of  Kildrummadyis,  entertaining  her 
*  as  if  she  had  been  his  spouse,  and  giving  her  such 
pre-eminence  in  the  county  that  none  durst  offend 


314  WITCH,  WARLOCK,  AND  MAGICIAN.      [BOOK  II. 

her.'  But  it  is  the  nature  of  such  unhallowed  con- 
federacies to  surrender,  sooner  or  later,  their  darkr 
dread  secrets.  Whispers  spread  abroad,  gradually 
shaping  themselves  into  a  connected  story  which 
invited  judicial  investigation.  A  warrant  was  issued 
for  the  arrest  of  Marion  Maclngurach  ;  but  for  some 
time  Hector  Munro  contrived  to  conceal  her,  until 
Dame  Fowlis  discovered  and  made  known  that  she 
was  lying  in  the  house  at  Fowlis.  She  was  arrested  • 
and,  making  a  full  confession  of  her  actions,  was 
sentenced  to  death,  and  burnt.  Hector  Munro. 
however,  was  more  fortunate,  and  obtained  his 
acquittal. 

JAMES    I.    AND    THE    WITCHES. 

These,  and  other  cases  of  witchcraft  which,  as  the 
mania  extended,  occurred  in  various  parts  of  the 
country,  attracted  the  attention  of  King  James,  and 
made  a  profound  impression  upon  him.  Taking  up 
the  study  of  the  subject  with  enthusiasm,  he  inquired 
into  the  demonology  of  France  and  Germany,  where 
it  had  been  matured  into  a  science;  and  this  so 
thoroughly  that  he  became,  as  already  stated,  an 
expert,  and  was  really  entitled  to  pronounce  authori- 
tative decisions.  His  example,  however,  had  a  dis- 
astrous effect,  confirming  and  deepening  the  popular 
credulity  to  such  an  extent  that  the  common  people, 
for  a  time,  might  have  been  divided  into  two  great 
classes — witches  and  witch-finders.  That  in  such 
circumstances  many  acts  of  cruelty  should  be  per- 
petrated was  inevitable.  So  complete  was  the  de- 


CHAP.   IV.]          JAMES    I.    AND    THE    WITCHES.  315 

moralization,  that  the  most  trivial  physical  or  mental 
peculiarity  was  held  to  be  an  indubitable  witch-mark, 
and  young  and  old  were  hurried  to  the  stake  like 
sheep  to  the  slaughter. 

In  August,  1589,  King  James  was  married,  by 
proxy,  to  Princess  Anne  of  Denmark  ;  and  the  im- 
patient monarch  was  eagerly  awaiting  the  arrival  of 
his  bride  from  Copenhagen,  when  the  unwelcome 
intelligence  reached  him  that  the  vessels  conveying 
her  and  her  suite  had  been  overtaken  by  a  storm, 
and,  after  a  narrow  escape  from  destruction,  had  put 
into  the  port  of  Upsal,  in  Norway,  with  the  intention 
of  remaining  there  until  the  following  spring.  The 
eager  bridegroom,  summoning  up  all  his  courage — 
he  had  no  love  for  the  sea — resolved  to  go  in  search 
of  his  queen,  and,  having  found  her,  to  conduct  her 
to  her  new  home.  At  Upsal  the  marriage  was  duly 
solemnized ;  and  husband  and  wife  then  voyaged  to 
Copenhagen,  where  they  spent  the  winter.  The 
homeward  voyage  was  not  undertaken  until  the 
following  spring  ;  and  it  was  on  May  Day,  1590, 
that  James  and  his  Queen  landed  at  Leith,  after  an 
experience  of  the  sea  which  confirmed  James's  dis- 
taste for  it. 

The  political  disorder  of  the  country,  and  the  hold 
which  the  new  superstition  had  obtained  upon  the 
minds  of  the  people,  encouraged  the  circulation  of 
dark  mysterious  rumours  in  connection  with  the 
King's  unfavourable  passage  ;  and  a  general  belief 
soon  came  to  be  established  that  the  tempestuous 
weather  which  had  so  seriously  affected  it  was  due  to 


316  WITCH,  WARLOCK,  AND  MAGICIAN.      [BOOK  II. 

the  intervention  of  supernatural  powers,  at  the  in- 
stigation of  human  treachery.  Suspicion  fixed  at 
length  upon  the  Earl  of  Bothwell,  who  was  arrested 
and  committed  to  prison ;  but  in  June,  1591,  con- 
trived to  make  his  escape,  and  conceal  himself  in  the 
remote  recesses  of  the  Highlands.  Not  long  after- 
wards, some  curious  circumstances  attending  certain 
cures  which  a  servant  girl — Geillis,  or  Gillies, 
Duncan — had  performed,  led  to  her  being  suspected 
of  witchcraft  ;  and  this  suspicion  opened  up  a  series 
of  investigations,  which  revealed  the  existence  of  an 
extraordinary  conspiracy  against  the  King's  life. 

Geillis  Duncan  was  in  the  employment  of  David 
Seton,  deputy -bailiff  of  the  small  town  of  Tranent, 
in  Haddingtonshire.  Unlike  the  witch  of  English 
rural  life,  she  was  young,  comely,  and  fair-com- 
plexioned  ;  and  the  only  ground  on  which  the  idea 
of  witchcraft  was  associated  with  her  was  the 
wonderful  quickness  with  which  she  had  cured  some 
sick  and  diseased  persons,  the  fact  being  that  she  was 
well  acquainted  with  the  healing  properties  of  herbs. 
When  her  master  severely  interrogated  her,  she  at 
once  denied  all  knowledge  of  the  mysteries  of  the 
black  art.  He  then,  without  leave  or  license,  put 
her  to  the  torture ;  she  still  continued  to  protest  her 
innocence.  It  was  a  popular  conviction  that  no 
witch  would  confess  so  long  as  the  devil-mark  on 
her  body  remained  undiscovered.  She  was  subjected 
to  an  indecent  examination — the  stigma  was  found 
(said  the  examiners)  on  her  throat;  she  was  again 
subjected  to  the  torture.  The  outraged  girl's  forti- 


CHAP.  IV.]          JAMES   I.    AND   THE    WITCHES.  317 

tude  then  gave  way ;  she  acknowledged  whatever  her 
persecutors  wished  to  learn.  Yes,  she  was  a  witch  t 
She  had  made  a  compact  with  the  devil  ;  all  her 
cures  had  been  effected  by  his  assistance — quite  a 
new  feature  in  the  character  of  Satan,  who  has  not 
generally  been  suspected  of  any  compassionate  feeling 
towards  suffering  humanity.  That  she  had  done 
good  instead  of  harm  availed  the  unfortunate  Geillis 
nothing.  She  was  committed  to  prison  ;  and  the 
torture  being  a  third  time  applied,  made  a  fuller 
confession,  in  which  she  named  her  accomplices  or 
confederates,  some  forty  in  number,  residing  in 
different  parts  of  Lothian.  Their  arrest  and  ex- 
amination disclosed  the  particulars  of  one  of  the 
strangest  intrigues  ever  concocted. 

The  principal  parties  in  it  were  Dr.  Fian,  or  Frain, 
a  reputed  wizard,  also  known  as  John  Cunningham  ; 
a  grave  matron,  named  Agnes  Sampson  ;  Euphemia 
Macalzean,  daughter  of  Lord  Cliftonhall  ;  and 
Barbara  Napier.  Fian,  or  Cunningham,  was  a 
schoolmaster  of  Tranent,  and  a  man  of  ability  and 
education  ;  but  his  life  had  been  evil — he  was  a 
vendor  of  poisons — and,  though  innocent  of  the  pre- 
posterous crimes  alleged  against  him,  had  dabbled  in 
the  practices  of  the  so-called  sorcery.  When  a 
twisted  cord  was  bound  round  his  bursting  temples, 
he  would  confess  nothing  ;  and,  exasperated  by  his 
fortitude,  the  authorities  subjected  him  to  the  terrible 
torture  of  '  the  boots/  Even  this  he  endured  in 
silence,  until  exhausted  nature  came  to  his  relief 
with  an  interval  of  unconsciousness.  He  was  then 


318  WITCH,  WARLOCK,  AND  MAGICIAN.      [BOOK  II. 

released  ;   restoratives  were   applied  ;   and,  while   he 
hovered  on  the  border  of  sensibility,  he  was  induced 
to  sign  '  a  full  confession/     Being  remanded  to  his 
prison,  he  contrived,  two  days  afterwards,  to  escape; 
but  was  recaptured,   and   brought  before  the    High 
Court    of    Justiciary,    King    James    himself    being 
present.     Fian   strenuously  repudiated  the  so-called 
confession  which  had  been  foisted  upon  him  in  his 
swoon,  declaring  that  his  signature  had  been  obtained 
by  a  fraud.     Whereupon   King   James,   enraged   at 
what  he  conceived  to  be  the  man's  stubborn  wilful- 
ness,  ordered  him  again  to  the  torture.     His  finger- 
nails were  torn  out  with  pincers,  and  long  needles 
thrust  into  the  quick  ;  but  the  courageous  man  made 
no  sign.     He  was  then  subjected  once  more  to  the 
barbarous  'boots/  in  which  he  continued    so    long, 
and  endured    so   many  blows,   that   '  his    legs   were 
crushed  and  beaten  together  as  small  as  might  be, 
and  the  bones  and  flesh  so  bruised,  that  the  blood 
and    marrow    spouted    forth    in    great    abundance, 
whereby  they  were  made  unserviceable  for  ever/ 

As  ultimately  extorted  from  the  unfortunate  Fian, 
his  confession  shows  a  remarkable  mixture  of  impos- 
ture and  self-deception — a  patchwork  of  the  false- 
hoods he  believed  and  those  he  invented.  Singularly 
grotesque  is  his  account  of  his  introduction  to  the 
devil:  He  was  lodging  at  Tranent,  in  the  house  of 
one  Thomas  Trumbill,  who  had  offended  him  by 
neglecting  to  '  sparge '  or  whitewash  his  chamber,  as 
he  had  promised ;  and,  while  lying  in  his  bed,  medi- 
tating how  he  might  be  revenged  of  the  said  Thomas, 


CHAP.   IV.]          JAMES    I.    AND    THE    WITCHES. 


319 


the  devil,  clothed  in  white  raiment,  suddenly  appeared, 
and  said :  '  Will  ye  be  my  servant,  and  adore  me 
and  all  my  servants,  and  ye  shall  never  want?' 
Never  want !  The  bribe  to  a  poor  Scotch  dominie 
was  immense;  Fian  could  not  withstand  it,  and  at 
once  enlisted  among  '  the  Devil's  Own/  As  his  first 
act  of  service,  he  had  the  pleasure  of  burning  down 
Master  Trumbill's  house.  The  next  night  Beelzebub 
paid  him  another  visit,  and  put  his  mark  upon  him 
with  a  rod.  Thereafter  he  was  found  lying  in  his 
chamber  in  a  trance,  during  which,  he  said,  he  was 
carried  in  the  spirit  over  many  mountains,  and 
accomplished  an  aerial  circumnavigation  of  the  globe. 
In  the  future  he  attended  all  the  nightly  conferences 
of  witches  and  fiends  held  throughout  Lothian,  dis- 
playing so  much  energy  and  capacity  that  the  devil 
appointed  him  to  be  his  '  registrar  and  secretary/ 

The  first  convention  at  which  he  was  present 
assembled  in  the  parish  church  of  North  Berwick,  a 
breezy,  picturesque  seaport  at  the  mouth  of  the  Forth, 
about  sixteen  miles  from  Preston  Pans.  Satan  occu- 
pied the  pulpit,  and  delivered  'a  sermon  of  doubtful 
speeches/  designed  for  their  encouragement  His 
servants,  he  said,  should  never  want,  and  should  ail 
nothing,  so  long  as  their  hairs  were  on,  and  they  let- 
no  tears  fall  from  their  eyes.  He  bade  them  spare 
not  to  do  evil,  and  advised  them  to  eat,  drink,  and 
be  merry:  after  which  edifying  discourse  they  did 
homage  to  him  in  the  usual  indecent  manner.  Fian, 

O  ' 

as  I  have  said,  was  an  evil-living  man,  and  needed 
ho  exhortation  from  the  devil  to  do  wicked  things. 


320  WITCH,  WARLOCK,  AND  MAGICIAN.      [BOOK  II. 

In  the  course  of  his  testimony  he  invented,  as  was  so 
frequently  the  strange  practice  of  persons  accused  of 
witchcraft,  the  most  extravagant  fictions — as,  for 
instance :  One  night  he  supped  at  the  miller's,  a  few 
miles  from  Tranent;  and  as  it  was  late  when  the 
revel  ended,  one  of  the  miller's  men  carried  him  home 
on  horseback.  To  light  them  on  their  way  through 
the  dark  of  night,  Fian  raised  up  four  candles  on  the 
horse's  ears,  and  one  on  the  staff  which  his  guide 
carried;  their  great  brightness  made  the  midnight 
appear  as  noonday ;  but  the  miller's  man  was  so 
terrified  by  the  phenomenon  that,  on  his  return  home, 
he  fell  dead. 

Let  us  next  turn  to  the  confession  of  Agnes 
Sampson,  '  the  wise  wife  of  Keith,'  as  she  was 
popularly  called.  She  was  charged  with  having 
done  grave  injury  to  persons  who  had  incurred  her 
displeasure;  but  she  seems,  when  all  fictitious  details 
are  thrust  aside,  to  have  been  simply  a  shrewd  and 
sagacious  old  Scotchwoman,  with  much  force  of 
character,  who  made  a  decent  living  as  a  herb-doctor. 
Archbishop  Spottiswoode  describes  her  as  matronly 
in  appearance,  and  grave  of  demeanour,  and  adds 
that  she  was  composed  in  her  answers.  Yet  were 
those  answers  the  wildest  and  most  extraordinary 
utterances  imaginable,  and,  if  they  be  truly  recorded, 
they  convict  her  of  unscrupulous  audacity  and  un- 
failing ingenuity. 

She  affirmed  that  her  service  to  the  devil  began 
after  her  husband's  death,  when  he  appeared  to  her 
in  mortal  likeness,  and  commanded  her  to  renounce 


CHAP.  IV.]         JAMES   I.    AND   THE   WITCHES.  321 

Christ,  and  obey  him  as  her  master.  For  the  sake  of 
the  riches  he  promised  to  herself  and  her  children, 
she  consented ;  and  thereafter  he  came  in  the  guise  of 
a  dog,  of  which  she  asked  questions,  always  receiving 
appropriate  replies.  On  one  occasion,  having  been 
summoned  by  the  Lady  Edmaston,  who  was  lying- 
sick,  she  went  out  into  the  garden  at  night,  and 
called  the  devil  by  his  terrestrial  or  mundane  alias 
of  Elva.  He  bounded  over  the  stone  wall  in  the 
likeness  of  a  dog,  and  approached  her  so  close  that 
she  was  frightened,  and  charged  him  by  £  the  law  he 
believed  in '  to  keep  his  distance.  She  then  asked 
him  if  the  lady  would  recover ;  he  replied  in  the 
negative.  In  his  turn  he  inquired  where  the  gentle- 
women, her  daughters,  were;  and  being  informed 
that  they  were  to  meet  her  in  the  garden,  said  that 
one  of  them  should  be  his  leman.  c  Not  so,' 
exclaimed  the  wise  wife  undauntedly ;  and  the  devil 
then  went  away  howling,  like  a  whipped  schoolboy, 
and  hid  himself  in  the  well  until  after  supper.  The 
young  gentlewomen  coming  into  the  bloom  and  per- 
fumes of  the  garden,  he  suddenly  emerged,  seized  the 
Lady  Torsenye,  and  attempted  to  drag  her  into  the 
well;  but  Agnes  gripped  him  firmly,  and  by  her 
superior  strength  delivered  her  from  his  clutches. 
Then,  with  a  terrible  yell,  he  disappeared. 

Yet  another  story:  Agnes,  with  Greillis  Duncan 
and  other  witches,  desiring  to  be  revenged  on  the 
deputy  bailiff,  met  on  the  bridge  at  Fowlistruther, 
and  dropped  a  cord  into  the  river,  Agnes  Sampson 
crying,  'Hail!  Holloa!'  Immediately  they  felt  the 

21 


322  WITCH,  WARLOCK,  AND  MAGICIAN.      [BOOK  II. 

end  of  the  cord  dragged  down  by  a  great  weight ; 
and  on  drawing  it  up,  up  came  the  devil  along  with 
it !  He  inquired  if  they  had  all  been  good  servants, 
and  gave  them  a  charm  to  blight  Seton  and  his 
property ;  but  it  was  accidentally  diverted  in  its  opera- 
tion, and  fell  upon  another  person — a  touch  of  realism 
worthy  of  Defoe ! 

Euphemia  Macalzean,  a  lady  of  high  social  position, 
daughter  and  heiress  of  Lord  Cliftonhall  (who  was 
eminent  as  lawyer,  statesman,  and  scholar),  seems  to 
have  been  involved  in  this  welter  of  intrigue,  con- 
spiracy, and  deception,  through  her  adherence  to 
Bothwell's  faction,  and  her  devotion  to  the  Koman 
communion.  Her  confession  was  as  grotesque  and 
unveracious  as  that  of  any  of  her  associates.  She  was 
made  a  witch  (she  said)  through  the  agency  of  an 
Irishwoman  'with  a  fallen  nose/  and,  to  perfect  her- 
self in  the  craft,  had  paid  another  witch,  who  resided 
in  St.  Mnian's  Row,  Edinburgh,  for  '  inaugurating ' 
her  with  'the  girth  of  ane  gret  bikar/  revolving  it 
1  oft  round  her  head  and  neck,  and  ofttimes  round  her 
head.'  She  was  accused  of  having  administered  poison 
to  her  husband,  her  father-in-law,  and  some  other 
persons ;  and  whatever  may  be  thought  of  the  allega- 
tions of  sorcery  and  witchcraft,  this  heavier  charge 
seems  to  have  been  well-founded.  Euphemia  said 
that  her  acquaintance  with  Agnes  Sampson  began 
with  her  first  accouchement,  when  she  applied  to  her 
to  mitigate  her  pains,  and  she  did  so  by  transferring 
them  to  a  dog.  At  her  second  accouchement,  Agnes 
transferred  them  to  a  cat. 


CHAP.  IV.]          JAMES    I.    AND    THE    WITCHES.  323 

As  a  determined  enemy  of  the  Protestant  religion, 
Satan  was  inimical  to  King  James's  marriage  with  a 
Protestant  princess,  and  to  break  up  an  alliance  which 
would  greatly  limit  his  power  for  evil,  he  determined 
to  sink  the  ship  that  carried  the  newly-married  couple 
on  their  homeward  voyage.  His  first  device  was  to 
hang  over  the  sea  a  very  dense  mist,  in  the  hope  that 
the  royal  ship  would  miss  her  course,  and  strike  on 
some  dangerous  rock.  When  this  device  failed, 
Dr.  Fian  was  ordered  to  summon  all  the  witches  to 
meet  their  master  at  the  haunted  kirk  of  North 
Berwick.  Accordingly,  on  All-Hallow-mass  Eve, 
they  assembled  there  to  the  number  of  two  hundred ; 
and  each  one  embarking  in  '  a  riddle/  or  sieve,*  they 
sailed  over  the  ocean  '  very  substantially,'  carrying 
with  them  flagons  of  wine,  and  making  merry, 
and  drinking  '  by  the  way.'  After  sailing  about  for 
some  time,  they  met  with  their  master,  bearing  in 
his  claws  a  cat,  which  had  previously  been  drawn 
nine  times  through  the  fire.  Handing  it  to  one  of 
the  warlocks,  he  bade  him  cast  it  into  the  sea,  and 
shout  '  Hola !'  whereupon  the  ocean  became  con- 
vulsed, and  the  waters  seethed,  and  the  billows  rose 
like  heaving  mountains.  On  through  the  storm 
sailed  this  eerie  company  until  they  reached  the 
Scottish  coast,  where  they  landed,  and,  joining  hands, 
danced  in  procession  to  the  kirk  of  North  Berwick, 
Geillis  Duncan  going  before  them,  playing  a  reel 
upon  her  Jew's-harp,  or  trump — formerly  a  favourite 

*  So  the  witch  in  '  Macbeth '  (Act  I.,  sc.  3)  says  : 
'In  a  sieve  I'll  thither  sail.' 

21—2 


324  WITCH,  WARLOCK,  AND  MAGICIAN.      [BOOK  II. 

musical  instrument  with  the  Scotch  peasantry — and 
singing  : 

*  Cummer,  go  ye  before  ;  cummer,  go  ye  ; 
Gif  ye  will  not  go  before,  cummer,  let  me  !' 

Having  arrived  at  their  rendezvous,  they  danced 
round  it  '  withershins  ' — that  is,  in  reverse  of  the 
apparent  motion  of  the  sun.  Dr.  Fian  then  blew 
into  the  keyhole  of  the  door,  which  opened  im- 
mediately, and  all  the  witches  and  warlocks  entered 
in.  It  was  pitch-dark ;  but  Fian  lighted  the  tapers 
by  merely  blowing  on  them,  and  their  sudden  blaze 
revealed  the  devil  in  the  pulpit,  attired  in  a  black 
gown  and  hat.  The  description  given  of  the  fiend 
reveals  the  stern  imagination  of  the  North,  and  is 
characteristic  of  the  '  weird  sisters  '  of  Scotland, 
who  form,  as  Dr.  Burton  remarks,  so  grand  a  con- 
trast to  i  the  vulgar  grovelling  parochial  witches  of 
England/  His  body  was  hard  as  iron  ;  his  face 
terrible,  with  a  nose  like  an  eagle's  beak  ;  his  eyes 
glared  like  fire  ;  his  voice  was  gruff  as  the  sound  of 
the  east  wind  ;  his  hands  and  legs  were  covered  with 
hair,  and  his  hands  and  feet  were  armed  with  long 
claws.  On  beholding  him,  witches  and  warlocks, 
with  one  accord,  cried  :  '  All  hail,  master  !'  He  then 
called  over  their  names,  and  demanded  of  them 
severally  whether  they  had  been  good  and  faithful 
servants,  and  what  measure  of  success  had  attended 
their  operations  against  the  lives  of  King  James  and 
his  bride — which  surely  he  ought  to  have  known  ! 
Gray  Malkin,  a  foolish  old  warlock,  who  officiated  as 
beadle  or  janitor,  heedlessly  answered,  That  nothing 


CHAP.   IV.]         JAMES   I.    AND   THE   WITCHES.  325 

ailed  the  King  yet,  God  be  thanked  !  At  which  the 
devil,  in  a  fury,  leaped  from  the  pulpit,  and  lustily 
smote  him  on  the  ears.  He  then  resumed  his 
position,  and  delivered  his  sermon,  commanding 
them  to  act  faithfully  in  their  service,  and  do  all  the 
evil  they  could.  Euphemia  Macalzean  and  Agnes 
Sampson  summoned  up  courage  enough  to  ask  him 
whether  he  had  brought  an  image  or  picture  of  the 
King,  that,  by  pricking  it  with  pins,  they  might 
inflict  upon  its  living  pattern  all  kinds  of  pain  and 
disease.  The  devil  was  fain  to  acknowledge  that  he 
had  forgotten  it,  and  was  soundly  rated  by  Euphemia 
for  his  carelessness,  Agnes  Sampson  and  several 
other  women  seizing  the  opportunity  to  load  him 
with  reproaches  on  their  respective  accounts. 

On  another  occasion,  according  to  Agnes  Sampson, 
she,  Dr.  Fian,  and  a  wizard  of  some  energy,  named 
Kobert  Grierson,  with  several  others,  left  Grierson's 
house  at  Preston  Pans  in  a  boat,  and  went  out  to  sea 
to  4  a  tryst.'  Embarking  on  board  a  ship,  they 
drank  copiously  of  good  wine  and  ale,  after  which 
they  sank  the  ship  and  her  crew,  and  returned  home. 
And  again,  sailing  from  North  Berwick  in  a  boat  like 
a  chimney,  they  saw  the  devil — in  shape  and  size 
resembling  a  huge  hayrick — rolling  over  the  great 
waves  in  front  of  them.  They  went  on  board  a 
vessel  called  The  Grace  of  God,  where  they  enjoyed, 
as  before,  an  abundance  of  wine  and  '  other  good 
cheer.'  On  leaving  it,  the  devil,  who  was  under- 
neath the  ship,  raised  an  evil  wind,  and  it  perished. 

Some  of  these   stories   proved   to  be  too   highly 


326  WITCH,  WARLOCK,  AND  MAGICIAN.      [BOOK  II. 

coloured  even  for  the  credulity  of  King  James  ;  and 
he  rightly  enough  exclaimed  that  the  witches  were, 
like  their  master,  'extraordinary  liars.'  It  is  said, 
however,  that  he  changed  his  opinion  after  Agnes 
Sampson,  in  a  private  conference  which  he  accorded 
to  her,  related  the  details  of  a  conversation  between 
himself  and  the  Queen  that  had  taken  place  under 
such  circumstances  as  to  ensure  inviolable  secrecy. 
It  is  curious  that  a  very  similar  story  is  told  of 
Jeanne  Dare — whom  our  ancestors  burned  as  a  witch 
— and  King  Charles  VI.  of  France. 

Despite  the  machinations  of  the  devil  and  the 
witches,  King  James  and  Queen  Anne,  as  we  know, 
escaped  every  peril,  and  reached  Leith  in  safety.  The 
devil  sourly  remarked  that  James  was  '  a  man  of 
God/  and  was  evidently  inclined  to  let  him  alone 
severely ;  but  the  Preston  Pans  conspirators,  in- 
stigated, perhaps,  by  some  powerful  personages  who 
kept  prudently  in  the  background,  resolved  on 
another  attempt  against  their  sovereign's  life.  On 
Lammas  Eve  (July  31,  1590),  nine  of  the  ring- 
leaders, including  Dr.  Fian,  Agnes  Sampson, 
Euphemia  Macalzean,  and  Barbara  Napier,  with  some 
thirty  confederates,  assembled  at  the  New  Haven, 
between  Musselburgh  and  Preston  Pans,  at  a  spot 
called  the  Fairy  Holes,  where  they  were  met  by  the 
devil  in  the  shape  of  a  black  man,  which  was 
*  thought  most  meet  to  do  the  turn  for  the  which 
they  were  convened.'  Agnes  Sampson  at  once  pro- 
posed that  they  should  make  a  final  effort  for  the 
King's  destruction.  The  devil  took  an  unfavourable 


CHAP.   IV.]         JAMES   I.    AND    THE   WITCHES.  327 

view  of  the  prospects  of  their  schemes  ;  but  he 
promised  them  a  waxen  image,  and  directed  them 
to  hang  up  and  roast  a  toad,  and  to  lay  its  drippings 
— mixed  with  strong  wash,  an  adder's  skin,  and  f  the 
thing  on  the  forehead  of  a  new- foaled  foal 9 — in 
James's  path,  or  to  suspend  it  in  such  a  position 
that  it  might  drip  upon  his  body.  This  precious 
injunction  was  duly  obeyed,  and  the  toad  hung  up 
where  the  dripping  would  fall  upon  the  King, 
1  during  his  Majesty's  being  at  the  Brig  of  Dee,  the 
day  before  the  common  bell  rang,  for  fear  the  Earl 
Bothwell  should  have  entered  Edinburgh/  But  the 
devil's  foreboding  was  fulfilled,  and  the  conspirators 
missed  their  aim,  the  King  happening  to  take  a 
different  route  to  that  by  which  he  had  been  ex- 
pected. 

It  is  useless  to  repeat  more  of  these  wild  and 
desperate  stories,  or  to  inquire  too  closely  into  their 
origin.  Fact  and  fiction  are  so  mixed  up  in  them, 
and  the  embellishments  are  so  many  and  so  bold, 
that  it  is  difficult  to  get  at  the  nucleus  of  truth ;  but, 
setting  aside  the  witch  or  supernatural  element,  we 
seem  driven  to  the  conclusion  that  these  persons  had 
combined  together  for  some  nefarious  purpose. 
Whether  they  intended  to  compass  the  King's  death 
by  the  superstitious  practices  which  the  credulity  of 
the  age  supposed  to  be  effective,  or  whether  these 
practices  were  intended  as  a  cover  for  surer  means, 
cannot  now  be  determined.  Nor  can  we  pretend  to 
say  whether  all  who  were  implicated  in  the  plot  by 
the  confession  of  Geillis  Duncan  were  really  guilty. 


328  WITCH,  WARLOCK,  AND  MAGICIAN.      [BOOK  II. 

Dr.  Fian,  at  all  events,  protested  his  innocence  to  the 
last  ;  and  with  regard  to  him  and  others,  the 
evidence  adduced  was  painfully  inadequate.  But 
they  were  all  convicted  and  sentenced  to  death.  In 
the  case  of  Barbara  Napier,  the  majority  of  the  jury 
at  first  acquitted  her  on  the  principal  charges  ;  but 
the  King  was  highly  indignant,  and  threatened  them 
with  a  trial  for  '  wilful  error  upon  an  assize.'  To 
avoid  the  consequences,  they  threw  themselves  upon 
the  King's  mercy,  and  were  benevolently  '  pardoned.' 
Poor  Barbara  Napier  was  hanged.  So  was  Dr. 
Fian,  on  Castle  Hill,  Edinburgh  (in  January,  1592), 
and  burned  afterwards.  So  were  Agnes  Sampson, 
Agnes  Thomson,  and  their  real  or  supposed  con- 
federates. The  punishment  of  Euphemia  Macalzean 
was  exceptionally  severe.  Instead  of  the  ordinary 
sentence,  directing  the  criminal  to  be  first  strangled 
and  then  burnt,  it  was  ordered  that  she  should  be 
'bound  to  a  stake,  and  burned  in  ashes,  quick  to  the 
death/  This  fate  befell  her  on  June  25,  1591. 

It  was  an  unhappy  result  of  this  remarkable  trial 
that  it  confirmed  King  James  in  his  belief  that  he 
possessed  a  rare  faculty  for  the  detection  of  witches 
and  the  discovery  of  witchcraft.  Continuing  his  in- 
vestigation of  the  subject  with  fanatical  zeal,  he 
published  in  Edinburgh,  in  1597,  the  outcome  ot  his 
researches  in  his  4  Daemonologie  '  —  an  elaborate 
treatise,  written  in  the  form  of  a  dialogue,  the  spirit 
of  which  may  be  inferred  from  its  author's  prefatory 
observations  :  '  The  fearful  abounding,'  he  says,  4  at 
this  time  and  in  this  country,  of  these  detestable 


CHAP.  IV.]         JAMES    I.    AND   THE    WITCHES.  329 

slaves  of  the  devil,  the  witches  or  enchanters,  hath 
moved  me  (beloved  reader)  to  despatch  in  post  this 
following  treatise  of  mine,  not  in  any  wise  (as  I 
protest)  to  serve  for  a  show  of  mine  own  learning 
and  ingene,  but  only  (moved  of  conscience)  to  press 
thereby,  so  far  as  I  can,  to  resolve  the  doubting 
hearts  of  many,  both  that  such  assaults  of  Satan  are 
most  certainly  practised,  and  that  the  instrument 
thereof  merits  most  severely  to  be  punished,  against 
the  damnable  opinions  of  two,  principally  in  our 
age  ;  whereof  the  one  called  Scot,  an  Englishman,  is 
not  ashamed  in  public  print  to  deny  that  there  can 
be  such  thing  as  witchcraft,  and  so  maintains  the 
old  error  of  the  Sadducees  in  denying  of  spirits. 
The  other,  called  Wierus,  a  German  physician,  sets 
out  a  public  apology  for  all  these  crafts-folks,  where- 
by procuring  for  them  impunity,  he  plainly  betrays 
himself  to  have  been  one  of  that  profession.' 

Not  only  is  King  James  fully  convinced  of  the 
existence  of  witchcraft,  but  he  is  determined  to  treat 
it  as  a  capital  crime.  'Witches,'  he  affirms,  'ought  to 
be  put  to  death,  according  to  the  laws  of  God,  the 
civil  and  imperial  law,  and  the  municipal  law  of  all 
Christian  nations ;  yea,  to  spare  the  life,  and  not 
strike  whom  God  bids  strike,  and  so  severely  punish 
so  odious  a  treason  against  God,  is  not  only  unlawful, 
but,  doubtless,  as  great  a  sin  in  the  magistrate  as  was 
Saul's  sparing  Agag.'  Conscious  that  the  evidence 
brought  against  the  unfortunate  victims  was  generally 
of  the  weakest  possible  character,  he  contends  that 
because  the  crime  is  generally  abominable,  evidence  in 


330  WITCH,  WARLOCK,  AND  MAGICIAN.      [BOOK  II. 

proof  of  it  may  be  accepted  which  would  be  refused 
in  other  offences ;  as,  for  example,  that  of  young 
children  who  are  ignorant  of  the  nature  of  an  oath, 
and  that  of  persons  of  notoriously  ill-repute.  And 
the  sole  chance  of  escape  which  he  offers  to  the 
accused  is  that  of  the  ordeal.  '  Two  good  helps/  he 
says,  f  may  be  used:  the  one  is  the  finding  of  their 
marks,  and  the  trying  the  insensibleness  thereof;  the 
other  is  their  floating  on  the  water,  for,  as  in  a  secret 
murther,  if  the  dead  carcase  be  at  any  time  thereafter 
handled  by  the  murtherer,  it  will  gush  out  of  blood, 
as  if  the  blood  were  raging  to  the  Heaven,  for  revenge 
of  the  murtherer  (God  having  appointed  that  secret 
supernatural  sign  for  trial  of  that  secret  unnatural 
crime),  so  that  it  appears  that  God  hath  appointed 
(for  a  supernatural  sign  of  the  monstrous  impiety 
of  witches),  that  the  water  shall  refuse  to  receive 
them  in  her  bosom  that  have  shaken  off  them  the 
sacred  water  of  baptism,  and  wilfully  refused  the 
benefit  thereof ;  no,  not  so  much  as  their  eyes  are 
able  to  shed  tears  at  every  light  occasion  when  they 
will ;  yea,  although  it  were  dissembling  like  the 
crocodiles,  God  not  permitting  them  to  dissemble 
their  obstinacy  in  so  horrible  a  crime.' 

Encouraged  by  the  practice  and  teaching  of  their 
sovereign,  the  people  of  Scotland,  whom  the  anthro- 
pomorphism of  their  religious  creed  naturally  pre- 
disposed to  believe  in  the  personal  appearances  of  the 
devil,  undertook  a  regular  campaign  against  those  ill- 
fated  individuals  whom  malice  or  ignorance,  or  their 


CHAP.  IV.]         JAMES   I.    AND   THE   WITCHES.  331 

own  mental  or  physical  peculiarities,  or  other  causes, 
branded  as  his  bond-slaves  and  accomplices.  Religious 
animosity,  moreover,  was  a  powerful  factor  in  stimu- 
lating and  sustaining  the  mania ;  and  the  Scotch 
Calvinist  enjoyed  a  double  gratification  when  some 
poor  old  woman  was  burned  both  as  a  witch  and  a 
Roman  Catholic.  It  has  been  calculated  that,  in  the 
period  of  thirty-nine  years,  between  the  enactment  of 
the  Statute  of  Queen  Mary  and  the  accession  of  James 
to  the  English  throne,  the  average  number  of  persons 
executed  for  witchcraft  was  200  annually,  making  an 
aggregate  of  nearly  8,000.  For  the  first  nine  years 
about  30  or  40  suffered  yearly  ;  but  latterly  the  annual 
death-roll  mounted  up  to  400  and  500.  James  at 
last  grew  alarmed  at  the  prevalence  of  witchcraft 
in  his  kingdom,  and  seems  to  have  devoted  no  small 
portion  of  his  time  to  attempts  to  detect  and  ex- 
terminate it. 

In  1591  the  Earl  of  Bothwell  was  imprisoned  for 
having  conspired  the  King's  death  by  sorcery,  in 
conjunction  with  a  warlock  named  Richie  Graham. 
Graham  was  burned  on  March  8,  1592.  Bothwell 
was  not  brought  to  trial  until  August  10,  1593, 
when  several  witches  bore  testimony  against  him, 
but  he  obtained  an  acquittal. 

In  1597,  on  November  12,  four  women  were  tried  by 
the  High  Court  of  Justiciary,  in  Edinburgh,  on  various 
charges  of  witchcraft.  Their  names  are  recorded  as 
Christina  Livingstone,  Janet  Stewart,  Bessie  Aikin, 
and  Christina  Sadler.  Their  trials,  however,  present 
no  special  features  of  interest. 


332  WITCH,  WARLOCK,  AND  MAGICIAN.      [BOOK  IL 

Passing  over  half  a  century,  we  come  to  the  recru- 
descence of  the  witch-mania,  which  followed  on  the 
restoration  of  Charles  II.  Mr.  E.  Burns  Begg  has 
recently  edited  for  the  Society  of  Antiquaries  of 
Scotland  a  report  of  various  witch  trials  in  Forfar 
and  Kincardineshire,  in  the  opening  years  of  that 
monarch's  reign,  which  supplies  some  further  illus- 
trations of  the  characteristics  of  Scottish  witchcraft. 
Here  we  meet  with  the  strange  word  '  Covin '  or 
6  Coven '  (apparently  connected  with  '  Covenant '  or 
1  Convention')  as  applied  to  an  organization  or  guild 
of  witches.  In  1662  the  Judge-General-Depute  for 
Scotland  tried  thirteen  '  Coviners,'  who  had  been 
detected  by  the  efforts  of  a  committee  consisting  of 
the  ministers  and  schoolmasters  of  the  district, 
together  with  the  'Laird  of  Tullibole.'  Of  these 
thirteen  unfortunate  victims  only  one  was  a  man. 
All  were  found  guilty  by  the  jury,  and  sentenced  to 
death.  Eleven  suffered  at  the  stake  ;  one  died  before 
the  day  of  execution,  and  one  was  respited  on  account 
of  her  pregnancy.  The  evidence  was  of  the  usual 
extraordinary  tenor,  and  the  so-called  fc  confessions ' 
of  the  accused  were  not  less  puzzling  than  in  other 
cases.  In  Mr.  Begg's  opinion,  which  seems  to  me 
well  founded,  there  really  was  in  and  around  the 
Crook  of  Devon  a  local  Covin,  or  regularly  organized 
band  of  so-called  witches  who  acted  under  the  direc- 
tion of  a  person  whom  they  believed  to  be  Satan. 
He  suggests  that  at  this  period  there  would  be  many 
wild  and  unscrupulous  characters,  disbanded  soldiers, 
and  others,  who  found  their  profit  in  the  '  blinded 


CHAP.   IV.]          JAMES    I.    AND    THE   WITCHES.  333 

allegiance*  of  the  witches  and  warlocks.  The  diffi- 
culty is,  what  was  this  profit  ?  The  witches  do  not 
seem  to  have  paid  anything  in  money  or  in  kind. 
There  are  allusions  which  point  to  acts  of  immorality, 
and  in  several  instances  one  can  understand  that 
personal  enmities  were  gratified  ;  but  on  the  whole 
the  personators  of  Satan  had  scant  reward  for  all  their 
trouble.  And  how  was  it  that  they  were  never 
denounced  by  any  of  their  victims  ?  How  was  it 
that  the  vigilance  which  detected  the  witches  never 
tripped  up  their  master  ?  How  are  we  to  explain 
the  diversity  of  Satan's  appearances  ?  At  one  time  he 
was  i  ane  bonnie  lad  ;'  at  another,  an  '  unco-like  man, 
in  black-coloured  clothes  and  ane  blue  bonnet ;'  at 
another,  a  '  black  iron-hard  man  ;'  and  yet  again, 
4  ane  little  man  in  rough  gray  clothes.'  Occasionally 
he  brought  with  him  a  piper,  and  the  witches  danced 
together,  and  the  ground  under  them  was  all  fire- 
flaughts,  and  Andrew  Watson  had  his  usual  staff  in 
his  hand,  and  although  he  is  a  blind  man,  yet  danced 
he  as  nimbly  as  any  of  the  company,  and  made  also 
great  merriment  by  singing  his  old  ballads  ;  and 
Isabel  Shyrrie  did  sing  her  song  called  '  Tinkletum, 
Tankletum.'  Alas,  that  no  obliging  pen  has  trans- 
mitted '  Tinkletum,  Tankletum '  to  posterity  !  One 
could  point  to  a  good  many  songs  which  the  world 
could  have  better  spared.  '  Tinkletum,  Tankletum ' 
— there  is  something  amazingly  suggestive  in  the 
words ;  possibilities  of  humour,  perhaps  of  satire  ; 
humour  and  satire  which  might  have  secured  for 
Isabel  Shyrrie  a  place  among  Scottish  poetesses, 


334  WITCH,  WARLOCK,  AND  MAGICIAN.      [BOOK  II. 

whereas  now  she  comes  before  us  in  no  more  attrac- 
tive character  than  that  of  a  Coviner — a  deluded  or 
self- deluding  witch. 

Let  us  next  betake  ourselves  to  the  East  Coast, 
and  make  the  acquaintance  of  Isabel  Gowdie,  whose 
1  confessions '  are  among  the  most  extraordinary 
documents  to  be  met  with  even  in  the  records  o 
Scottish  witchcraft.  It  is  impossible,  I  think,  to 
overrate  their  psychological  interest.  The  first  is, 
perhaps,  the  most  curious;  and  as  no  summary  or 
condensation  would  do  justice  to  its  details,  I  shall 
place  it  before  the  reader  in  extenso,  with  no  other 
alteration  than  that  of  Englishing  the  spelling.  It 
was  made  at  Auldearn  on  April  13,  1662,  in  presence 
of  the  parish  minister,  the  sheriff-depute  of  Nairn, 
and  nine  lairds  and  farmers  of  good  position : 

'  As  I  was  going  betwixt  the  towns  (i.e.,  farmstead- 
ings)  of  Drumdeevin  and  The  Heads,  I  met  with  the 
Devil,  and  there  covenanted  in  a  manner  with  him ; 
and  I  promised  to  meet  him,  in  the  night-time,  in  the 
Kirk  of  Auldearn,^  which  I  did.  And  the  first  thing 
I  did  there  that  night,  I  denied  my  baptism,  and  did 
put  the  one  of  my  hands  to  the  crown  of  my  head, 
and  the  other  to  the  sole  of  my  foot,  and  then 
renounced  all  betwixt  my  two  hands  over  to  the 

*  It  is  a  singular  circumstance,  as  Pitcairn  remarks,  that  in 
almost  all  the  confessions  of  witches,  or  at  least  of  the  Scottish 
witches,  their  initiation,  and  many  of  their  meetings,  are  said  to 
have  taken  place  within  churches,  churchyards,  and  consecrated 
ground ;  and  a  certain  ritual,  in  imitation,  or  mockery,  of  the 
forms  of  the  Church,  is  uniformly  said  to  have  been  gone  through. 


CHAP.   IV.]          JAMES   I.    AND    THE    WITCHES.  335 

Devil.  He  was  in  the  Reader's  desk,  and  a  black  book 
in  his  hand.  Margaret  Brodie,  in  Auldearn,  held  me 
up  to  the  Devil  to  be  baptized  by  him,  and  he  marked 
me  in  the  shoulder,  and  sucked  out  my  blood  at  that 
mark,  and  spouted  it  in  his  hand,  and,  sprinkling  it 
on  my  head,  said,  u  I  baptize  thee,  Janet,  in  my  own 
name  !"  And  within  awhile  we  all  removed.  The 
next  time  that  I  met  with  him  was  in  the  New 
Wards  of  Inshoch.  .  .  .  He  was  a  mickle,  black, 
rough  [hirsute]  man,  very  cold;  and  I  found  his 
nature  all  cold  within  me  as  spring- wall- water.* 
Sometimes  he  had  boots,  and  sometimes  shoes  on 
his  feet;  but  still  his  feet  are  forked  and  cloven.  He 
would  be  sometimes  with  us  like  a  deer  or  a  roe. 
John  Taylor  and  Janet  Breadhead,  his  wife,  in 
Belmakeith,  .  .  .  Douglas,  and  I  myself,  met  in  the 
kirkyard  of  Nairn,  and  we  raised  an  unchristened 
child  out  of  its  grave ;  and  at  the  end  of  Bradley's 
cornfielcftand,  just  opposite  to  the  Mill  of  Nairn,  we 
took  the  said  child,  with  the  nails  of  our  fingers  and 
toes,  pickles  of  all  sorts  of  grain,  and  blades  of  kail 
[colewort],  and  hacked  them  all  very  small,  mixed 
together;  and  did  put  a  part  thereof  among  the 
muck-heaps,  and  thereby  took  away  the  fruit  of  his 
corns,  etc.,  and  we  parted  it  among  two  of  our  Covins. 
When  we  take  corns  at  Lammas,  we  take  but  about 
two  sheaves,  when  the  corns  are  full ;  or  two  stalks  of 

Tkail,  or  thereby,  and  that  gives  us  the  fruit  of  the 
corn-land  or  kail-yard,  where  they  grew.  And  it 

*  In  the  Forfarshire  reports,  alluded  to  on  p.  332,  the  witches 
always  speak  of  the  devil's  body  and  kiss  as  deadly  cold. 


336  WITCH,  WARLOCK,  AND  MAGICIAN.      [BOOK  II. 

may  be,  we  will  keep  it  until  Yule  or  Pasche,  and 
then  divide  it  amongst  us.  There  are  thirteen  persons 
[the  usual  number]  in  my  Covin. 

'  The  last  time  that  our  Covin  met,  we,  and  another 
Covin,  were  dancing  at  the  Hill  of  Earlseat ;  and 
before  that,  betwixt  Moynes  and  Bowgholl;  and 
before  that  we  were  beyond  the  Mickle-burn  ;  and  the 
other  Covin  being  at  the  Downie-hills,  we  went  from 
beyond  the  Mickle-burn,  and  went  beside  them,  to  the 
houses  at  the  Wood-End  of  Inshoch ;  and  within  a 
while  went  home  to  our  houses.  Before  Candlemas 
we  went  be-east  Kinloss,  and  there  we  yoked  a  plough 
of  paddocks  [frogs].  The  Devil  held  the  plough,  and 
John  Young,  in  Mebestown,  our  Officer,  did  drive 
the  plough.  Paddocks  did  draw  the  plough  as  oxen ; 
quickens  wor  sowmes  [dog-grass  served  for  traces] ;  a 
riglon's  [ram's]  horn  was  a  coulter,  and  a  piece  of  a 
riglon's  horn  was  a  sock.  We  went  two  several  times 
about;  and  all  we  of  the  Covin  went  still  up  and 
down  with  the  plough,  praying  to  the  Devil  for  the 
fruit  of  that  land,  and  that  thistles  and  briars  might 
grow  there. 

'  When  we  go  to  any  house,  we  take  meat  and 
drink  ;  and  we  fill  up  the  barrels  with  our  own  .... 
again  ;  and  we  put  besoms  in  our  beds  with  our 
husbands,  till  we  return  again  to  them.  We  were  in 
the  Earl  of  Moray's  house  in  Darnaway,  and  we  got 
enough  there,  and  did  eat  and  drink  of  the  best,  and 
brought  part  with  us.  We  went  in  at  the  windows. 
I  had  a  little  horse,  and  would  say,  "Horse  and 
Hattock,  in  the  Devil's  name  !"  And  then  we  would 


CHAP.   IV.]         JAMES   I.    AND   THE   WITCHES.  337 

fly  away,  where  we  would,  like  as  straws  would  fly 
upon  a  highway.  We  will  fly  like  straws  where  we 
please ;  wild  straws  and  corn-straws  will  be  horses  to 
us,  and  we  put  them  betwixt  our  feet  and  say, 
"  Horse  and  Hattock,  in  the  Devil's  name  !"  And 
when  any  see  these  straws  in  a  whirlwind,  and  do 
not  sanctify  themselves,  we  may  shoot  them  dead  at 
our  pleasure.  Any  that  are  shot  by  us,  their  souls 
will  go  to  Heaven,  but  their  bodies  remain  with  us, 
and  will  fly  as  horses  to  us,  as  small  as  straws.* 

'  I  was  in  the  Downie  Hills,  and  got  meat  there  from 
the  Queen  of  Fairy,  more  than  I  could  eat.  The 
Queen  of  Fairy  is  heavily  clothed  in  white  linen,  and 
in  white  and  lemon  clothes,  etc. ;  and  the  King  of 
Fairy  is  a  brave  man,  well  favoured,  and  broad -faced, 
etc.  There  were  elf-bulls,  routing  and  skirling  up 
and  down  there,  and  they  affrighted  me. 

4  When  we  take  away  any  cow's  milk,  we  pull  the 
tail,  and  twine  it  and  plait  it  the  wrong  way,  in  the 
Devil's  name;  and  we  draw  the  tedder  (so  made)  in 
betwixt  the  cow's  hinder-feet,  and  out  betwixt  the 
cow's  fore-feet,  in  the  Devil's  name,  and  thereby  take 
with  us  the  cow's  milk.  We  take  sheep's  milk  even 
so  [in  the  same  manner].  The  way  to  take  or  give 
back  the  milk  again,  is  to  cut  that  tedder.  When  we 
take  away  the  strength  of  any  person's  ale,  and  give 

*  Pitcairn  remarks,  with  justice,  that  the  above  details  are, 
perhaps,  in  all  respects  the  most  extraordinary  in  the  history  of 
witchcraft  of  this  or  of  any  other  country.  Isabel  Gowdie  must 
have  been  a  woman  with  a  powerful  and  rank  imagination,  who, 
had  she  lived  in  the  present  day,  might,  perhaps,  have  produced 
a  work  of  fiction  of  the  school  of  Zola. 

22 


338  WITCH,  WARLOCK,  AND  MAGICIAN.       [BOOK  II. 

it  to  another,  we  take  a  little  quantity  out  of  each 
barrel  or  stand  of  ale,  and  put  it  in  a  stoop  in  the 
Devil's  name,  and  in  his  name,  with  our  own  hands, 
put  it  amongst  another's  ale,  and  give  her  the  strength 
and  substance  and  "  heall "  of  her  neighbour's  ale. 
And  to  keep  the  ale  from  us,  that  we  have  no  power 
over  it,  is  to  sanctify  it  well.  We  get  all  this  power 
from  the  Devil;  and  when  we  seek  it  from  him,  we 
will  him  to  be  "  our  Lord." 

1  John  Taylor,  and  Janet  Bread  head,  his  wife,  in 
Belmakeith,  Bessie  Wilson  in  Aulderne,  and  Margaret 
Wilson,  spouse  to  Donald  Callam  in  Aulderne,  and  I, 
made  a  picture  of  clay,  to  destroy  the  Laird  of  Park's 
male  children.  John  Taylor  brought  home  the  clay 
in  his  plaid  nook  [the  corner  of  his  plaid]  ;  his  wife 
broke  it  very  small,  like  meal,  and  sifted  it  with  a 
sieve,  and  poured  in  water  among  it,  in  the  Devil's 
name,  and  wrought  it  very  sure,  like  rye-bout  [a  stir- 
about made  of  rye-flour]  ;  and  made  of  it  a  picture  of 
the  laird's  sons.  It  had  all  the  parts  and  marks  of  a 
child,  such  as  head,  eyes,  nose,  hands,  feet,  mouth, 
and  little  lips.  It  wanted  no  mark  of  a  child,  and 
the  hands  of  it  folded  down  by  its  sides.  It  was  like 
a  pow  [lump  of  dough],  or  a  flayed  egrya  [a  sucking- 
pig,  which  has  been  scalded  and  scraped].  We  laid 
the  face  of  it  to  the  fire,  till  it  strakned  [shrivelled], 
and  a  clear  fire  round  about  it,  till  it  was  red  like  a 
coal.  After  that,  we  would  roast  it  now  and  then ; 
each  other  day  there  would  be  a  piece  o^  w^ll 
roasted.  The  Laird  of  Park's  wh^je  male  children 
by  it  are  to  suffer,  if  it  be  not  r  ^  and  brokin,  as 


CHAP.   IV.]          JAMES    I.    AND    THE    WITCHES.  339 

well  as  those  that  are  born  and  dead  already.  It  was 
still  put  in  and  taken  out  of  the  fire  in  the  Devil's 
name.  It  was  hung  up  upon  a  crock.  It  is  yet  in 
John  Taylor's  house,  and  it  has  a  cradle  of  clay  about 
it.  Only  John  Taylor  and  his  wife,  Janet  Bread- 
head,  Bessie  and  Margaret  Wilson  in  Aulderne,  and 
Margaret  Brodie,  these,  and  I,  were  only  at  the 
making  of  it.  All  the  multitude  of  our  number  of 
witches,  of  all  the  Covins,  kent  [kenned,  knew]  all  of 
it,  at  our  next  meeting  after  it  was  made.  And  the 
witches  yet  that  are  overtaken  have  their  own  powers, 
and  our  powers  which  we  had  before  we  were  taken, 
both.  But  now  I  have  no  power  at  all. 

6  Margaret  Kyllie,  in  ....  is  one  of  the  other 
Covin :  Meslie  Hirdall,  spouse  to  Alexander  Ross,  in 
Loanhead,  is  one  of  them ;  her  skin  is  fiery.  Isabel 
Nicol,  in  Lochley,  is  one  of  my  Covin.  Alexander 
Elder,  in  Earlseat,  and  Janet  Finlay,  his  spouse,  are 
of  my  Covin.  Margaret  Haslum,  in  Moynes,  is  one ; 
Margaret  Brodie,  in  Aulderne,  Bessie  and  Margaret 
Wilson  there,  and  Jane  Martin  there,  and  Elspet 
Mshie,  spouse  to  John  Mathew  there,  are  of  my 
Covin.  The  said  Jane  Martin  is  the  Maiden  of  our 
Covin.  John  Young,  in  Mebestown,  is  Officer  to 
our  Covin. 

1  Elspet  Chisholm,  and  Isabel  More,  in  Aulderne, 
Maggie  Brodie  ....  and  I,  went  into  Alexander 
Cumling's  litt-house  [dye-house],  in  Aulderne.  I 
went  in,  in  the  likeness  of  a  ken  [jackdaw] ;  the  said 
Elspet  Chisholm  was  in  the  shape  of  a  cat.  Isabel 
More  was  a  hare,  and  Maggie  Brodie  a  cat,  and  .... 

22—2 


340  WITCH,  WARLOCK,  AND  MAGICIAN.      [BOOK  II. 

We  took  a  thread  of  each  colour  of  yarn  that  was  on 
the  said  Alexander  Cumling's  litt-fatt  [ dyeing- vat] , 
and  did  cast  three  knots  on  each  thread,  in  the  Devil's 
name,  and  did  put  the  threads  in  the  vat,  withersones 
about  in  the  vat  in  the  Devil's  name,  and  thereby 
took  the  whole  strength  of  the  vat  away,  that  it 
could  litt  [dye]  nothing  but  only  black,  according  to 
the  colour  of  the  Devil,  in  whose  name  we  took  away 
the  strength  of  the  right  colours  that  were  in  the  vat.' 

The  second  confession,  made  at  Aulderne,  on  May  3, 
1662,  is  not  less  remarkable  than  the  foregoing  : 

' .  .  .  .  After  that  time  there  would  meet  but  some- 
times a  Covin  [i.e.,  thirteen],  sometimes  more,  some- 
times less ;  but  a  Grand  Meeting  would  be  about  the 
end  of  each  Quarter.  There  is  thirteen  persons  in  each 
Covin;  and  each  of  us  has  one  Sprite  to  wait  upon  us, 
when  we  please  to  call  upon  him.  I  remember  not  all 
the  Sprites'  names,  but  there  is  one  called  Swin,  which 
waits  upon  the  said  Margaret  Wilson  in  Aulderne ;  he 
is  still  [ever]  clothed  in  grass-green ;  and  the  said 
Margaret  Wilson  has  a  nickname,  called  u  Pickle 
nearest  the  wind."  The  next  Sprite  is  called  "  Rosie," 
who  waits  upon  Bessie  Wilson,  in  Aulderne;  he  is 
still  clothed  in  yellow;  and  her  nickname  is  "  Through 
the  corny  ard."  .  .  .  The  third  Sprite  is  called  "  The 
Roaring  Lion,"  who  waits  upon  Isabel  Mcol,  in 
Lochlors  ;  and  [he  is  still  clothed*]  in  sea-green  ; 
her  nickname  is  "Bessie  Rule."  The  fourth  Sprite  is 

*  There  are  mutilations  in  the  original  manuscript,  and  the 
bracketed  words  are  conjectural. 


CHAP.  IV.]         JAMES   I.    AND   THE   WITCHES. 


341 


called  "  Mak  Hector,"  who  [waits  upon  Jane*] 
Martin,  daughter  to  the  said  Margaret  Wilson  ;  he  is  a 
young-like  devil,  clothed  still  in  grass-green.  [Jane 
Martin  is*]  Maiden  to  the  Covin  that  I  am  of;  and 
her  nickname  is  "  Over  the  dyke  with  it,"  because  the 
Devil  [always  takes  the*]  Maiden  in  his  hand  nix 
time  we  damn  "  Gillatrypes ;"  and  when  he  would  leap 
from  .  .  .*  he  and  she  will  say,  "Over  the  dyke  with 
it!"  The  name  of  the  fifth  Sprite  is  "Robert  the 
[Rule,"  and  he  is  still  clothed  in*]  sad-dun,  and  seems 
to  be  a  Commander  of  the  rest  of  the  Sprites  ;  and 
he  waits  upon  Margaret  Brodie,  in  Aulderne.  [The 
name  of  the  saxt  Sprite]  is  called  "  Thief  of  Hell 
wait  upon  Herself;"  and  he  waits  also  on  the  said 
Bessie  Wilson.  The  name  of  the  seventh  [Sprite  is 
called]  "  The  Read  Reiver;"  and  he  is  my  own  Spirit, 
that  waits  on  myself,  and  is  still  clothed  in  black. 
The  eighth  Spirit  [is  called]  "  Robert  the  Jackis,"  still 
clothed  in  dun,  and  seems  to  be  aged.  He  is  a 
glaiked,  glowked  Spirit  !  The  woman's  [nickname] 
that  he  waits  on  is  "Able  and  Stout !"  [This  was 
Bessie  Hay.]  The  ninth  Spirit  is  called  "  Laing," 
and  the  woman's  nickname  that  he  waits  upon  is 
"Bessie  Bold"  [Elspet  Nishie].  The  tenth  Spirit  is 
named  "  Thomas  a  Fiarie,"  etc.  There  will  be  many 
other  Devils,  waiting  upon  [our]  Master  Devil;  but 
he  is  bigger  and  more  awful  than  the  rest  of  the 
Devils,  and  they  all  reverence  him.  I  will  ken 

*  There  are  mutilations  in  the  original  manuscript,  and  the 
bracketed  words  are  conjectural. 


342  WITCH,  WAKLOCK,  AND  MAGICIAN.      [BOOK  II. 

them  all,  one  by  one,  from  others,  when  they  appear 
like  a  man. 

4  When  we  raise  the  wind,  we  take  a  rag  of  cloth, 
and  wet  it  in  water ;  and  we  take  a  beetle  and  knock 
the  rag  on  a  stone,  and  we  say  thrice  over: 

;  "  I  knock  this  rag  upon  this  stane, 

To  raise  the  wind,  in  the  Devil's  name  ; 
It  shall  not  lie  until  I  please  again  !" 

When  we  would  lay  the  wind,  we  dry  the  rag,  and 
say  (thrice  over)  : 

'  "  We  lay  the  wind  in  the  Devil's  name, 

[It  shall  not]  rise  while  we  [or  I]  like  to  raise  it  again  !" 

And  if  the  wind  will  not  lie  instantly  [after  we  say 
this],  we  call  upon  our  Spirit,  and  say  to  him : 

'  "Thief  !  Thief  !  conjure  the  wind,  and  cause  it  to  [lie  ?  .  .  .]" 

We  have  no  power  of  rain,  but  we  will  raise  the  wind 
when  we  please.  He  made  us  believe  [  .  .  .]  that 
there  was  no  God  beside  him. 

4  As  for  Elf  arrow-heads,  the  Devil  shapes  them 
with  his  own  hand  [and  afterwards  delivers  them  ?] 
to  Elf-boys,  who  "  whyttis  and  dightis  "  [shapes  and 
trims]  them  with  a  sharp  thing  like  a  packing-needle ; 
but  [when  I  was  in  Elf-land  ?]  I  saw  them  whytting 
and  dighting  them.  When  I  was  in  the  Elves' 
houses,  they  will  have  very  .  .  .  them  whytting  and 
dighting ;  and  the  Devil  gives  them  to  us,  each  of  us 
so  many,  when  .  .  .  Those  that  dightis  them  are 
little  ones,  hollow,  and  boss-backed  [humped-backed]. 
They  speak  gowstie  [roughly]  like.  When  the 
Devil  gives  them  to  us,  he  says : 


CHAP.  IV.]          JAMES   I.    AND    THE    WITCHES.  343 

"  '  Shoot  these  in  my  name, 

And  they  shall  not  go  heall  hame !" 

And  when  we  shoot  these  arrows  (we  say)  : 

"  *  I  shoot  you  man  in  the  Devil's  name, 
He  shall  not  win  heall  hame  ! 
And  this  shall  be  always  true ; 
There  shall  not  be  one  bit  of  him  on  lieiw  "  [on  life,  alive]. 

c  We  have  no  bow  to  shoot  with,  but  spang  [jerk] 
them  from  the  nails  of  our  thumbs.  Sometimes  we 
will  miss  ;  but  if  they  twitch  [touch],  be  it  beast,  or 
man,  or  woman,  it  will  kill,  tho'  they  had  a  jack  [a 
coat  of  armour]  upon  them.  When  we  go  in  the 
shape  of  a  hare,  we  say  thrice  over : 

' "  I  shall  go  into  a  hare, 

With  sorrow,  and  such,  and  mickle  care  ; 
And  I  shall  go  in  the  Devil's  name, 
Ay,  until  I  come  home  [again !]." 

And  instantly  we  start  in  a  hare.     And  when  we 
would  be  out  of  that  shape,  we  will  say : 

' "  Hare  !  hare  !  God  send  thee  care  ! 
I  am  in  a  hare's  likeness  just  now, 
But  I  shall  be  in  a  woman's  likeness  even  [now]." 

When  we  would  go  in  the  likeness  of  a  cat,  we  say 
thrice  over : 

1 "  I  shall  go  [in till  ane  cat], 

[With  sorrow,  and  such,  and  a  black]  shot ! 
And  I  shall  go  in  the  Devil's  name, 
Ay,  until  I  come  home  again  !" 

And  if  we  [would  go  in  a  crow,  then]  we  say  thrice 
over: 


344  WITCH,  WARLOCK,  AND  MAGICIAN.       [BOOK  II. 

1 "  I  shall  go  intill  a  crow, 

With  sorrow,  and  such,  and  a  black  [thraw  ! 
And  I  shall  go  in  the  Devil's  name,] 
Ay,  until  I  come  home  again  !" 

And  when  we  would  be  out  of  these  shapes,  we  say : 

'  "  Cat,  cat  [or  crow,  crow],  God  send  thee  a  black  shot  [or  black 
thraw !] 

I  was  a  cat  [or  crow]  just  now, 
But  I  shall  be  [in  a  woman's  likeness  even  now]. 
Cat,  cat"  [as  supra]. 

If  we  go  in  the  shape  of  a  cat,  a  crow,  a  hare,  or 
any  other  likeness,  etc.,  to  any  of  our  neighbours' 
houses,  being  witches,  we  will  say : 

' "  [I  (or  we)  conjure]  thee  go  with  us  [or  me] "  ! 

And  presently  they  become  as  we  are,  either  cats, 
hares,  crows,  etc.,  and  go  [with  us  whither  we  would. 
When]  we  would  ride,  we  take  windle- straws,  or 
been-stakes  [bean-stalks],  and  put  them  betwixt  our 
feet,  and  say  thrice : 

*  "  Horse  and  Hattock,  horse  and  go, 
Horse  and  pellatris,  ho  !  ho  !" 

And  immediately  we  fly  away  wherever  we  would; 
and  lest  our  husbands  should  rniss  us  out  of  our  beds, 
we  put  in  a  besom,  or  a  three-legged  stool,  beside 
them,  and  say  thrice  over : 

*  "  I  lay  down  this  besom  [or  stool]  in  the  Devil's  name, 
Let  it  not  stir  till  I  come  home  again  !" 

And  immediately  it  seems  a  woman,  by  the  side  of  our 
husband. 


CHAP.  IV,]          JAMES   I.    AND   THE    WITCHES.  345 

*  We  cannot  turn  in  [to]  the  likeness  of  [a  lamb  or 
a  dove  ?]  When  my  husband  sold  beef,  I  used  to 
put  a  swallow's  feather  in  the  head  of  the  beast,  and 
[say  thrice], 

'  "  [I]  put  out  this  beef  in  the  Devil's  name, 
That  mickle  silver  and  good  price  come  hame  !" 

4 1  did  even  so  [whenever  I  put]  forth  either  horse, 
nolt  [cattle],  webs  [of  cloth],  or  any  other  thing  to 
be  sold,  and  still  put  in  this  feather,  and  said  the 
[same  words  thrice]  over,  to  cause  the  commodities 
sell  well,  and  ....  thrice  over — 

'  "  Our  Lord  to  hunting  he  [is  gone] 

marble  stone, 

He  sent  word  to  Saint  Knitt  .  .  ." 

'  When  we  would  heal  any  sore  or  broken  limb, 
we  say  thrice  over  .... 

'  "  He  put  the  blood  to  the  blood,  till  all  up  stood  ; 
The  lith  to  the  lith,  Till  all  took  nith  ; 
Our  Lady  charmed  her  dearly  Son,  With  her  tooth  and  her 

tongue, 

And  her  ten  fingers — 
In  the  name  of  the  Father,  the  Son,  and  the  Holy  Ghost !" 

1  And  this  we  say  thrice  over,  stroking  the  sore, 
and  it  becomes  whole.  2ndlie.  For  the  Bean- Shaw 
[bone-shaw,  i.e.,  the  sciatica],  or  pain  in  the  haunch: 
"  We  are  here  three  Maidens  charming  for  the  bean- 
shaw;  the  man  of  the  Midle-earth,  blew  beaver,  land- 
fever,  maneris  of  stooris,  the  Lord  fleigged  (terrified) 
the  Fiend  with  his  holy  candles  and  yard  foot-stone  ! 
There  she  sits,  and  here  she  is  gone  !  Let  her  never 


346  WITCH,  WAKLOCK,  AND  MAGICIAN.       [BOOK  II. 

come  here  again  !"  3rdli.  For  the  fevers,  we  say 
thrice  over,  "  I  forbid  the  quaking-fevers,  the  sea- 
fevers,  the  land-fevers,  and  all  the  fevers  that  God 
ordained,  out  of  the  head,  out  of  the  heart,  out  of  the 
back,  out  of  the  sides,  out  of  the  knees,  out  of  the 
thighs,  from  the  points  of  the  fingers  to  the  nibs  of 
the  toes;  net  fall  the  fevers  go,  [some]  to  the  hill, 
some  to  the  heep,  some  to  the  stone,  some  to  the 
stock.  In  St.  Peter's  name,  St.  Paul's  name,  and  all 
the  Saints  of  Heaven.  In  the  name  of  the  Father, 
the  Son,  and  of  the  Holy  Ghost !"  And  when  we 
took  the  fruit  of  the  fishes  from  the  fishers,  we  went 
to  the  shore  before  the  boat  would  come  to  it;  and 
we  would  say,  on  the  shore-side,  three  several  times 
over  : 

4 "  The  fishers  are  gone  to  the  sea, 

And  they  will  bring  home  fish  to  me ; 

They  will  bring  them  home  intill  the  boat, 

But  they  shall  get  of  them  but  the  smaller  sort !" 

So  we  either  steal  a  fish,  or  buy  a  fish,  or  get  a  fish 
irom  them  [for  naught],  one  or  more.  And  with 
that  we  have  all  the  fruit  of  the  whole  fishes  in  the 
boat,  and  the  fishes  that  the  fishermen  themselves  will 
have  will  be  but  froth,  etc. 

1  The  first  voyage  that  ever  I  went  with  the  rest  of 
our  Covins  was  [to]  Ploughlands ;  and  there  we  shot 
a  man  betwixt  the  plough-stilts,  and  he  presently 
fell  to  the  ground,  upon  his  nose  and  his  mouth ;  and 
then  the  Devil  gave  me  an  arrow,  and  caused  me 
shoot  a  woman  in  that  field;  which  I  did,  and  she  fell 


• 
I 


CHAP.   IV.]         JAMES    I.    AND    THE   WITCHES.  347 

down  dead.*  In  winter  of  1660,  when  Mr.  Harry 
Forbes,  Minister  at  Aulderne,  was  sick,  we  made  a 
bag  of  the  galls,  flesh,  and  guts  of  toads,  pickles  of 
barley,  parings  of  the  nails  of  fingers  and  toes,  the 
liver  of  a  hare,  and  bits  of  clouts.  We  steeped  all 
this  together,  all  night  among  water,  all  hacked  (or 
minced  up)  through  other.  And  when  we  did  put  it 
among  the  water,  Satan  was  with  us,  and  learned  us 
the  words  following,  to  say  thrice  over.  They  are 
thus  : 

*  1st.  "  He  is  lying  in  his  bed  ;  he  is  lying  sick  and  sore  ; 

Let  him  lie  intill  his  bed  two  months  and  [three]  days 

more  ! 
1  2nd.  "  Let  him  lie  intill  his  bed ;  let  him  lie  intill  it  sick  and 

sore ; 
Let  him  lie  intill  his  bed  months  two  and  three  days 

more  ! 

4  3rd.   "  He  shall  lie  intill  his  bed,  he  shall  lie  in  it  sick  and  sore; 
He  shall  lie  intill  his  bed  two  months  and  three  days 
more  !" 

'  When  we  had  learned  all  these  words  from  the 
Devil,  as  said  is,  we  fell  all  down  upon  our  knees, 
with  our  hair  down  over  our  shoulders  and  eyes,  and 
our  hands  lifted  up,  and  our  eyes  [upon]  the  Devil, 
and  said  the  foresaid  words  thrice  over  to  the  Devil, 
strictly,  against  [the  recovery  of]  Master  Harry 
Forbes  [from  his  sickness].  In  the  night  time  we 
came  in  to  Mr.  Harry  Forbes's  chamber,  where  he 
lay,  with  our  hands  all  smeared  out  of  the  bag,  to 
swing  it  upon  Mr.  Harry,  when  he  was  sick  in  his 


*  These,  it  is  needless  to  say,  were  pure  inventions,  and  by  no 
means  amusing  ones. 


348  WITCH,  WAKLOCK,  AND  MAGICIAN.      [BOOK  II. 

bed ;  and  in  the  daytime  [one  of  our]  number,  who 
was  most  familiar  and  intimate  with  him,  to  wring  or 
swing  the  bag  [upon  the  said  Mr.  Harry,  as  we 
could]  not  prevail  in  the  night  time  against  him, 
which  was  accordingly  done.  Any  of  ....  comes  in 
to  your  houses,  or  are  set  to  do  you  evil,  they  will  look 
uncouth  -  like,  thrown  ....  hurly  -  like,  and  their 
clothes  standing  out.  The  Maiden  of  our  Covin, 
Jane  Martin,  was  [.  .  .  .  We]  do  no  great  matter 
without  our  Maiden. 

'And  if  a  child  be  forespoken  [bewitched],  we  take 
the  cradle  ....  through  it  thrice,  and  then  a  dog 
through  it;  and  then  shake  the  belt  above  the  fire 
[.  .  .  .  and  then  cast  it]  down  on  the  ground,  till  a 
dog  or  cat  go  over  it,  that  the  sickness  may  come 
[.  .  .  .  upon  the  dog  or  cat].' 

With  these  extended  quotations  the  reader  will 
probably  be  satisfied,  and  in  concluding  my  account 
of  Isabel  Gowdie,  I  must  now  adopt  a  process  of 
condensation. 

Among  other  freaks  and  fancies  of  a  disordered 
imagination,  Isabel  declared  that  she  merited  to  be 
stretched  upon  a  rack  of  iron,  and  that  if  torn  to 
pieces  by  wild  horses,  the  punishment  would  not 
exceed  the  measure  of  her  iniquities.  These  iniquities 
comprehended  every  act  attributed  by  the  superstition 
of  the  time  to  the  servants  of  the  devil,  which  had 
been  carefully  gathered  up  by  this  monomaniac  from 
contemporary  witch-tradition.  The  cruellest  thing 
was,  that  she  involved  so  large  a  number  of  innocent 


CHAP.   IV.]          JAMES    I.    AND    THE    WITCHES.  349 

persons  in  the  peril  into  which  she  herself  had  reck- 
lessly plunged,  naming  nearly  fifty  women,  and  I  for- 
get how  many  men,  as  her  associates  or  accomplices. 
She  affirmed  that  they  dug  up  from  their  graves  the 
bodies  of  unbaptized  infants,  and  having  dismembered 
them,  made  use  of  the  limbs  in  their  incantations. 
That  when  they  wished  to  destroy  an  enemy's  crops, 
they  yoked  toads  to  his  plough ;  and  on  the  following 
night  the  devil,  with  this  strange  team,  drove  furrows 
into  the  land,  and  blasted  it  effectually.  The  devil, 
it  would  seem,  was  so  long  and  so  incessantly  occu- 
pied with  high  affairs  in  Scotland,  that  surely  the 
rest  of  the  world  must  have  escaped  meanwhile  the 
evils  of  his  interference  !  Witches,  added  Isabel,  were 
able  to  assume  almost  any  shape,  but  their  usual 
choice  was  that  of  a  hare,  or  perhaps  a  cat.  There 
was  some  risk  in  either  assumption.  Once  it  hap- 
pened that  Isabel,  in  her  disguise  of  a  hare,  was  hotly 
pursued  by  a  pack  of  hounds,  and  narrowly  escaped 
with  her  life.  When  she  reached  her  cottage-door 
she  could  feel  the  hot  breath  of  her  pursuers  on  her 
haunches ;  but,  contriving  to  slip  behind  a  chest,  she 
found  time  to  speak  the  magic  words  which  alone 
could  restore  her  to  her  natural  shape,  namely : 

1  "  Hare  !  hare  !  God  send  thee  care  ! 
I  am  in  a  hare's  likeness  now; 
But  I  shall  be  a  woman  e'en  now. 
Hare  !  hare  !  God  send  thee  care  !" 


If  witches,  while  wearing  the  shape  of  hare  or  cat, 
were  bitten   by  the  dogs,  they  always   retained  the 


350  WITCH,  WARLOCK,  AND  MAGICIAN.      [BOOK  II. 

marks  on  their  human  bodies.  When  the  devil 
called  a  convention  of  his  servants,  each  proceeded 
through  the  air — like  the  witches  of  Lapland  and 
other  countries  —  astride  on  a  broomstick  [or  it 
might  be  on  a  corn  or  bean  straw],  repeating  as  they 
went  the  rhyme  : 

'  Horse  and  paddock,  horse  and  go, 
Horse  and  pellatris,  ho  !  ho  !' 

They  usually  left  behind  them  a  broom,  or  three- 
legged  stool,  which,  properly  charmed  and  placed  in 
bed,  assumed  a  likeness  to  themselves  until  they 
returned,  and  prevented  suspicion.  This  seems  to 
have  been  the  practice  of  witches  everywhere. 
Witches  specially  favoured  by  their  master  were  pro- 
vided with  a  couple  of  imps  as  attendants,  who 
boasted  such  very  mundane  names  as  f  The  Roaring 
Lion,'  '  Thief  of  Hell/  *  Ranting  Roarer/  and  l  Care  for 
Nought ' — a  great  improvement  on  the  vulgar  mono- 
syllables worn  by  the  English  imps — and  were  dressed, 
as  already  described,  in  distinguishing  liveries  :  sea- 
green,  pea-green,  grass-green,  sad-dun,  and  yellow. 
The  witches  were  never  allowed — at  least,  not  in  the 
infernal  presence— to  call  themselves,  or  one  another, 
by  their  baptismal  names,  but  were  required  to  use 
the  appellations  bestowed  on  the  devil  when  he  re- 
baptized  them,  such  as  'Blue  Kail,'  'Raise  the  Wind/ 
'  Batter-them-down  Maggie/  and  '  Able  and  Stout.' 
The  reader  will  find  in  the  reports  of  the  trial  much 
more  of  this  grotesque  nonsense — the  vapourings  of 
a  distempered  brain.  The  judges,  however,  took  it 


CHAP.  IV.]  CASE    OF    JANET    WISHART.  351 

seriously,  and  Isabel  Gowdie,  or  Gilbert,  and  many  of 
her  presumed  accomplices,  were  duly  strangled  and 
burned  (in  April,  1662). 

CASE    OF    JANET    WISHART. 

The  case  of  Janet  Wisharfc,  wife  of  John  Leyis, 
carries  us  away  to  the  North  of  Scotland.  It  presents 
some  peculiar  features,  and  therefore  I  shall  put  it 
before  the  reader,  with  no  more  abridgment  than  is 
absolutely  needful.  It  is  of  much  earlier  date  than 
the  preceding.* 

'i.  In  the  month  of  April,  or  thereabout,  in  1591, 
in  the  "gricking"  of  the  day,  [that  is,  in  the  dawn,] 
Janet  Wishart,  on  her  way  back  from  the  blockhouse 
and  Fattie,  where  she  had  been  holding  conference 
with  the  devil,  pursued  Alexander  Thomson,  mariner, 
coming  forth  of  Aberdeen  to  his  ship,  ran  between 
him  and  Alexander  Fidler,  under  the  Castle  Hill,  as 
swift,  it  appeared  to  him,  as  an  arrow  could  be  shot 
forth  of  a  bow,  going  betwixt  him  and  the  sun,  and 
cast  her  "  cantrips"  in  his  way.  Whereupon,  the  said 
Alexander  Thomson  took  an  immediate  "  fear  and 
trembling,"  and  was  forced  to  hasten  home,  take  to 
his  bed,  and  lie  there  for  the  space  of  a  month,  so 
that  none  believed  he  would  live ; — one  half  of  the 
day  burning  in  his  body,  as  if  he  had  been  roasting 
in  an  oven,  with  an  extreme  feverish  thirst,  "  so  that 
he  could  never  be  satisfied  of  drink,"  the  other  half  of 
the  day  melting  away  his  body  with  an  extra- 
ordinarily cold  sweat.  And  Thomson,  knowing  she 

*  From  the  '  Records  of  the  Burgh  of  Aberdeen/  printed  for  the 
Spalding  Club,  1841. 


352  WITCH,  WARLOCK,  AND  MAGICIAN.      [BOOK  II. 

had  cast  this  kind  of  witchcraft  upon  him,  sent  his 
wife  to  threaten  her,  that,  unless  she  at  once  relieved 
him,  he  would  see  that  she  was  burnt.  And  she, 
fearing  lest  he  should  accuse  her,  sent  him  by  the  two 
women  a  certain  kind  of  beer  and  some  other  drugs 
to  drink,  after  which  Thomson  mended  daily,  and  re- 
covered his  former  health.' 

It  is  to  be  noted  that  Janet  flatly  denied  the 
coming  of  Mrs.  Thomson  on  any  such  errand. 

'  ii.  Seven  years  before,  on  St.  Bartholomew's  Day, 
when  Andrew  Ardes,  webster  [weaver],  in  his  play, 
took  a  linen  towel,  and  put  it  about  the  said  Janet's 
neck,  not  fearing  any  evil  from  her,  or  that  she  would 
be  oifended,  Janet,  "in  a  devilish  fury  and  wodnes" 
[madness],  exclaimed,  "  Why  teasest  thou  me  ? 
Thou  shalt  die!  I  shall  give  bread  to  my  bairns 
this  towmound  [twelvemonth],  but  thou  shalt  not 
bide  a  month  with  thine  to  give  them  bread/'  And 
immediately  after  the  said  Andre w's  departure  from 
her,  he  took  to  his  bed  for  the  space  of  eight  days : 
the  one  half  of  the  day  roasting  in  his  whole  body  as 
in  a  furnace,  and  the  other  half  with  a  vehement 
sweat  melting  away;  so  that,  by  her  cruel  murther 
and  witchcraft,  the  said  Andrew  Ardes  died  within 
eight  days.  And  the  day  after  his  departure,  his 
widow,  "  contracting  a  high  displeasure,"  took  to  her 
bed,  and  within  a  month  deceased  ;  so  that  all  their 
bairns  are  now  begging  their  meat.' 

This  was  testified  to  be  true  by  Elspeth  Ewin, 
spouse  to  James  Mar,  mariner,  but  was  denied  by 
the  accused. 


CHAP.  IV.]  CASE    OF   JANET    WISHART.  353 

c  iii.  Twenty-four  years  ago,  in  the  month  of  May, 
when  she  dwelt  on  the  School  Hill,  next  to  Adam 
Mair's,  she  was  descried  by  Andrew  Brabner  the 
younger,  John  Leslie,  of  the  Gallowgate,  Robert 
Sanders,  wright,  Andrew  Simson,  tailor,  and  one 
Johnson,  who  were  then  schoolboys,  stealing  forth 
from  the  said  Adam  Mair's  yard,  at  two  in  the  morn- 
ing, "greyn  growand  bear";  and  instantly,  being 
pointed  out  by  the  said  scholars  to  the  wife  of  the 
said  Adam,  she,  in  her  fury,  burst  forth  upon  the 
scholars :  "  Well  have  ye  schemed  me,  but  I  shall 
gar  the  best  of  you  repent!"  And  she  added  that, 
ere  four  in  the  afternoon,  she  would  make  as  many 
wonder  at  them  as  should  see  them.  Upon  the  same 
day,  between  two  and  three  in  the  afternoon,  the  said 
scholars  passed  to  the  Old  Watergang  in  the  Links  to 
wash  themselves;  and  after  they  had  done  so,  and 
dried,  the  said  John  Leslie  and  Johnson  took  a  race 
beside  the  Watergang,  and  desperately  threw  them- 
selves into  the  midst  of  the  Watergang,  and  were 
drowned,  through  the  witchcraft  which  Janet  had 
cast  upon  them.  And  thus,  as  she  had  promised,  she 
did  murder  them.' 

This  was  testified  by  Eobert  Sanders  and  Andrew 
Simson,  but  was  denied  by  the  accused. 

'  iv.  Sixteen  years  since,  or  thereby,  she  [the  accused] 
and  Malcolm  Carr's  wife,  having  fallen  at  variance 
and  discord,  she  openly  vowed  that  the  latter  should 
be  confined  to  her  bed  for  a  year  and  a  day,  and 
should  not  make  for  herself  a  single  cake  :  immedi- 
ately after  which  discord,  the  said  Malcolm's  wife 

23 


354  WITCH,  WARLOCK,  AND  MAGICIAN.      [BOOK  II. 

went  to  her  own  house,  sought  her  bed,  and  lay  half 
a  year  bed -stricken  by  the  witchcraft  Janet  had  cast 
upon  her,  according  to  her  promise  ;  one  half  of  the 
day  burning  up  her  whole  body  as  in  a  fiery  furnace, 
the  other  half  melting  away  her  body  with  an  extra- 
ordinary sweat,  with  a  congealed  coldness.1 

v.  She  was  also  accused  of  lending  to  Meryann 
Nasmith  a  pair  of  head-sheets  in  childbed,  into  which 
she  put  her  witchcraft :  which  sheets,  as  soon  as  she 
knew  they  had  taken  heat  about  the  woman's  head, 
immediately  she  went  and  took  them  from  her  ;  and 
before  she  [Janet]  was  well  out  of  the  house,  Mery- 
ann went  out  of  her  mind,  and  was  bound  hand  and 
foot  for  three  days. 

vi.  Three  years  since,  or  thereby,  James  Ailhows, 
having  been  a  long  time  in  her  service,  Janet  desired 
him  to  continue  with  her,  and  on  his  refusing,  {  Gang 
where  you  please,'  she  said,  '  I  will  see  that  you  do 
not  earn  a  single  cake  of  bread  for  a  year  and  a  day.' 
And  as  soon  as  he  quitted  her  service,  he  was  seized 
with  an  extremely  heavy  sickness  and  (wodnes) 
delirium,  with  a  continual  burning  heat  and  cold 
sweating,  and  lay  bedfast  half  a  year,  according  to 
her  promise,  through  the  devilish  witchcraft  she  had 
cast  upon  him.  So  that  he  was  compelled  to  send  to 
Benia  for  another  witch  to  take  the  witchcraft  from 
him  :  who  came  to  this  town  and  washed  him  in 
water  running  south,  and  put  him  through  a  girth, 
with  some  other  ceremonies  that  she  used.  And  he 
paid  her  seventeen  marks,  and  by  her  help  recovered 
health  again. 


CHAP.   IV.]  CASE    OF   JANET    WISH  ART.  355 

vii.  For  twenty  years  past  she  continually  and 
nightly,  after  eleven  o'clock,  when  her  husband  and 
servants  had!  gone  to  their  beds,  put  on  a  great  fire, 
and  kept  it  up  all  night,  and  sat  before  it  using 
witchcraft,  altogether  contrary  to  the  nature  of  well- 
living  persons.  And  on  those  nights  when  she  did 
not  make  up  the  fire,  she  went  out  of  the  house,  and 
stayed  away  all  night  where  she  pleased. 

viii.  She  caused  .  .  .  .,  then  in  her  service,  and 
lately  shepherd  to  Mr.  Alexander  Fraser,  to  take 
certain  drugs  of  witchcraft  made  by  her,  such  as  old 
shoon,  and  cast  them  in  the  fire  of  John  Club,  stabler, 
her  neighbour  ;  since  which  time,  through  her  witch- 
craft, the  said  John  Club  has  become  completely  im- 
poverished. 

ix.  She  and  Janet  Patton  having  fallen  into 
variance  and  discord,  Janet  Patton  called  the  witch 
1  Karling,'  to  whom  she  answered  that  she  would 
give  her  to  understand  if  she  was  a  witch,  and  would 
try  her  skill  upon  her.  And  immediately  afterwards, 
Janet  Patton  [like  everybody  else  concerned  in  these 
mysterious  doings]  took  to  her  bed,  with  a  vehement, 
great,  and  extraordinary  sickness,  for  one  half  the  day, 
from  her  middle  up,  burning  as  in  a  fiery  furnace, 
with  an  insatiable  drought,  which  she  could  not  slake ; 
the  other  half-day,  melting  away  with  sweat,  and  from 
her  middle  down  as  cold  as  ice,  so  that  through  the 
witchcraft  cast  upon  her  she  died  within  a  month. 

x.  The  particulars  given  of  the  case  of  James 
Lowe,  stabler,  are  almost  the  same.  He  refused  to 
lend  his  kill  and  barn,  and  on  the  same  day  he  was 

23—2 


356  WITCH,  WARLOCK,  AND  MAGICIAN.       [BOOK  II. 

seized  with  this  remarkable  sickness — half  a  day 
burning  hot,  and  half  a  day  ice-cold.  On  his  death- 
bed he  accused  Janet  Wishart  of  being  the  cause  of 
his  misfortune,  saying,  "  That  if  he  had  lent  to  her 
his  kill  and  kilbarn,  he  wald  haf  bene  ane  lewand 
man."  His  wife  and  only  son  died  of  the  same  kind 
of  disease,  and  his  whole  gear,  amounting  to  more 
than  £3,000,  was  altogether  wracked  and  thrown  away, 
so  that  there  was  left  no  memory  of  the  said  James, 
succession  of  his  body,  nor  of  their  gear. 

xi.  John  Pyet,  stabler,  is  named  as  another  victim. 

xii.  There  is  an  air  of  novelty  about  the  next  case, 
that  of  John  Allan,  cutler,  Janet  Wishart' s  son-in-law. 
Quarrelling  with  his  wife,  he  c  dang '  her,  '  where- 
upon Mistress  Allan  complained  to  her  mother,  who 
immediately  betook  herself  to  her  son-in-law's  house, 
i  bostit '  him,  and  promised  to  gar  him  repent  that 
ever  he  saw  or  kent  her.  Shortly  afterwards,  either 
she  or  the  devil  her  master,  in  the  likeness  of  a  brown 
tyke,  came  nightly  for  five  or  six  weeks  to  his 
window,  forced  it  open,  leaped  upon  the  said  John, 
dang  and  buffeted  him,  while  always  sparing  his 
wife,  who  lay  in  bed  with  him,  so  that  the  said  John 
became  half-wod  and  furious.  And  this  persecution 
continued,  until  he  threatened  to  inform  the  ministry 
and  kirk -session. 

xiii.  The  next  case  must  be  given  verbatim,  it  is 
so  striking  an  example  of  ignorant  prejudice : 

'  Four  years  since,  or  thereby,  she  carne  in  to  Walter 
Healing's  dwelling-house,  in  the  Castlegate  of  Aber- 
deen, to  buy  wool,  which  they  refused  to  sell.  There- 


CHAP.  IV.]  CASE   OF   JANET   WISHART.  357 

after,  she  came  to  the  said  Walter's  bairn,  sitting  on 
her  mother's  knee,  and  the  said  Walter  played  with 
her.  And  she  said,  "  This  is  a  comely  child,  a  fine 
child,"  without  any  further  words,  and  would  not 
say  "  God  save  her!"  And  before  she  reached  the 
stair-foot,  the  bairn,  by  her  witchcraft,  in  presence  of 
both  her  father  and  mother,  "  cast  her  gall,"  changed 
her  colour  like  dead,  and  became  as  weak  as  "ane 
pair  of  glwffis,"  and  melted  continually  away  with  an 
extraordinary  sweating  and  extreme  drought,  which 
that  same  day  eight  days,  at  the  same  hour,  she  came 
in  first,  and  then  the  bairn  departed.  And  for  no 
request  nor  command  of  the  said  Walter,  nor  others 
whom  he  directed,  she  would  not  come  in  again  to 
the  house  to  "  visie  "  the  bairn,  although  she  was  oft 
and  divers  times  sent  for,  both  by  the  father  and 
mother  of  the  bairn,  and  so  by  her  witchcraft  she 
murdered  the  bairn/ 

xiv.  On  Yule  Eve,  in  '94,  at  three  in  the  morning, 
Janet,  remaining  in  Gilbert  Mackay's  stair  in  the 
Broadgate,  perceived  Bessie  Schives,  spouse  of  Robert 
Blinschell,  going  forth  of  her  own  house  to  the 
dwelling-house  of  James  Davidson,  notary,  to  his 
wife,  who  was  in  travail.  She  came  down  the  stair, 
and  cast  her  cantrips  and  witchcraft  in  her  way,  and 
the  said  Bessie  being  in  perfect  health  of  body,  and 
as  blithe  and  merry  as  ever  she  was  in  her  days, 
when  she  went  out  of  the  same  James  Davidson's 
house,  or  ever  she  could  win  up  her  own  stair,  took  a 
great  fear  and  trembling  that  she  might  scarcely  win 
up  her  own  stair,  and  immediately  after  her  up- 


358  WITCH,  WARLOCK,  AND  MAGICIAN.      [BOOK  II. 

coming,  went  to  her  naked  bed,  lay  continually  for 
the  space  of  eighteen  weeks  fast  bed- sick,  bewitched 
by  Janet  Wishart,  the  one  half-day  roasting  as  in  a 
fiery  furnace,  with  an  extraordinary  kind  of  drought, 
that  she  could  not  be  slaked,  and  the  other  half- day 
in  an  extraordinary  kind  of  sweating,  melting,  and 
consuming  her  body,  as  a  white  burning  candle, 
which  kind  of  sickness  is  a  special  point  of  witch- 
craft; and  the  said  Bessie  Schives  saw  none  other 
but  Janet  only,  who  is  holden  and  reputed  a  common 
witch. 

xv.  At  Midsummer  was  a  year  or  thereby,  Elspeth 
Eeid,  her  daughter-in-law,  came  into  her  house  at 
three  in  the  morning,  and  found  her  sitting,  mother 
naked  as  she  was  born,  at  the  fireside,  and  another 
old  wife  siclike  mother  naked,  sitting  between  her 
shoulders [!],  making  their  cantrips,  whom  the  said 
Elspeth  seeing,  after  she  said  'God  speed,'  immedi- 
ately went  out  of  the  house ;  thereafter,  on  the  same 
day,  returned  again,  and  asked  of  her,  what  she  was 
doing  with  that  old  wife  ?  To  whom  she  answered, 
that  she  was  charming  her.  And  as  soon  as  the  said 
Elspeth  went  forth  again  from  Janet  Wishart' s  house, 
immediately  she  took  an  extraordinary  kind  of  sick- 
ness, and  became  '  like  a  dead  senseless  fool,'  and  so 
continued  for  half  a  year. 

xvi.  She  [Janet]  and  her  daughter,  Violet  Leyis, 
desired  ....  her  woman  to  go  with  her  said 
daughter,  at  twelve  o'clock  at  night,  to  the  gallows, 
and  cut  down  the  dead  man  hanging  thereon,  and 
take  a  part  of  all  his  members  from  him,  and  burn 


CHAP.   IV.J  CASE    OF   JANET   WISHART.  359 

the  corpse,  which  her  servant  would  not   do,  and, 
therefore,  she  was  instantly  sent  away. 

xvii.    The   following  deposition   is,    however,  the 
most  singular  of  all : 

Twelve  years  since,  or  thereby,  Janet  came  into 
Katherine  Eattray's,  behind  the  Tolbooth,  and  while 
she   was    drinking   in    the    said    Katherine's    cellar, 
Katherine  reproved  her  for  drinking  in  her  house, 
because,  she  said,  she  was  a  witch.     Whereupon,  she 
took  a  cup  full  of  ale,  and  cast  it  in  her  face,  and  said 
that  if  she  were  indeed  a  witch,  the  said  Katherine 
should  have  proof  of  it ;   and  immediately  after  she 
had  quitted  the  cellar,  the  barm  of  the  said  Katherine's 
ale  all  sank  to  the  bottom  of  the  stand,  and  no  had  abaid 
[a  bead]  thereon  during  the  space  of  sixteen  weeks. 
And   the  said   Katherine  finding   herself  '  skaithit,' 
complained  to   her   daughter,  Katherine  Ewin,  who 
was  then  in  close  acquaintance  with  Janet,  that  she 
had   bewitched   her   mother's  ale;   and   immediately 
thereafter  the  said  Katherine  Ewin  called  on  Janet, 
and  said,  '  Why  bewitched  you  my  mother's  ale  ?'  and 
requested  her  to  help  the  same  again.     Which  Janet 
promised,  if  Katherine  Ewin  obeyed  her  instructions 
.  ...  to  rise   early  before   the   sun,  without   com- 
mending  herself  to    God,  or  speaking,  and  neither 
suining  herself  nor  her  son  sucking  on  her  breast ;  to 
go,   still   without   speaking,   to   the    said    Katherine 
Eat  tray's   house,  and   not   to  cross  any  water,  nor 
wash  her  hands ;  and  enter  into  the  said  Katherine 
Eattray's  house,  where  she  would  find  her  servant 
brewing,  and  say  to  her  thrice,  '  I  to  God,  and  thou 


360  WITCH,  WARLOCK,  AND  MAGICIAN.      [BOOK  II. 

to  the  devil!'  and  to  restore  the  same  barm  where  it 
was  again ;  '  and  to  take  up  thrie  dwattis  on  the 
southt  end  of  the  gauttreyis,  and  thair  scho  suld  find 
ane  peice  of  claithe,  fowr  newikit,  with  greyn,  red, 
and  blew,  and  thrie  corss  of  clewir  girss,  and  cast  the 
same  in  the  fyir;  quhilk  beand  cassin  in,  her  barm 
suld  be  restorit  to  hir  againe,  lyik  as  it  was  restorit 
in  effect.'  And  the  said  Katherine  Ewin,  when 
cracking  [gossiping]  with  her  neighbours,  said  she 
could  learn  them  a  charm  she  had  gotten  from  Janet 
Wishart,  which  when  the  latter  heard,  she  promised 
to  do  her  an  evil  turn,  and  immediately  her  son,  suck- 
ing on  her  breast,  died.  And  at  her  first  browst,  or 
brewing,  thereafter,  the  whole  wort  being  played  and 
put  in  4lumes,'  the  doors  fast,  and  the  keys  at  her 
own  belt,  the  whole  wort  was  taken  away,  and  the 
haill  lumes  fundin  dry,  and  the  floor  dry,  and  she 
could  never  get  trial  where  it  yird  to.  And  when  the 
said  Katherine  complained  to  the  said  Janet  Wishart, 
and  dang  herself  and  her  good  man  both,  for  injuries 
done  to  her  by  taking  of  her  son's  life  and  her  wort 
[which  Katherine  seems  to  have  thought  of  about 
equal  value],  she  promised  that  all  should  be  well, 
giving  her  her  draff  for  payment.  And  the  said 
Katherine,  with  her  husband  Ambrose  Gordon,  being 
in  their  beds,  could  not  for  the  space  of  twenty  days 
be  quit  of  a  cat,  lying  nightly  in  their  bed,  between 
the  two,  and  taking  a  great  bite  out  of  Ambrose's 
arm,  as  yet  the  place  testifies,  and  when  they  gave  up 
the  draff,  the  cat  went  away. 

Some  fourteen  more  charges  were  brought  against 


CHAP.   IV.]  CASE    OF   JANET   WISH  ART.  361 

her.  She  was  tried  on  February  17,  1596,  before  the 
Provost  and  Baillies  of  Aberdeen,  and  found  guilty 
upon  eighteen  counts  of  being  a  common  witch  and 
sorcerer.  Sentence  of  death  by  burning  was  recorded 
against  her,  and  she  suffered  on  the  same  day  as 
another  reputed  witch,  Isabel  Cocker.  The  expenses 
of  their  execution  are  preserved  in  the  account-books 
of  the  Dean  of  Guild,  1596-1597,  and  prove  that 
witch- burning  was  a  luxury  scarcely  within  the  reach 
of  the  many. 

JANETT  WISCHART  AND  ISSBEL  COCKER. 

Item.  For  twentie  loades  of  peattes  to  burne 

thame xM. 

Item.  For  ane  Boile  of  Coillis xxiiiisft. 

Item.  For  four  Tar  barrellis      xxvish.  viiid. 

Item.  For  fyr  and  Iron  barrellis  ...         ...  xvish.  \iiid. 

Item.  For  a  staik  and  dressing  of  it     xvish. 

Item.  For  four  fudoms  [fathoms  ?]  of  Towis    . . .  mish. 

Item.  For  careing  the  peittis,  coillis,  and  barrellis 

to  the  Hill  ...  ...  ...  ...  viiis^.  iiii^. 

Item.  To  on  Justice  for  their  execution  xiiish.  uiid. 


clivshillings. 

On  several  occasions  commissions  were  issued  by 
the  King,  in  favour  of  the  Provost  and  some  of  the 
Baillies  of  the  burgh,  and  the  Sheriff  of  the  county, 
for  the  purpose  of  '  haul  ding  Justice  Courtis  on 
Witches  and  Sorceraris.'  These  commissioners  gave 
warrants  in  their  turn  to  the  minister  and  elders  of 
each  parish  in  the  shire,  to  examine  parties  suspected 
of  witchcraft,  and  to  frame  a  '  dittay  '  or  indictment 
against  such  persons.  It  was  an  inevitable  result  that 


362  WITCH,  WABLOCK,  AND  MAGICIAN.      [BOOK  II. 

all  the  scandalous  gossip  of  the  community  was 
assiduously  collected ;  while  any  individual  who  had 
become,  from  whatsoever  cause,  an  object  of  jealousy 
or  dislike  to  her  neighbours,  was  overwhelmed  by  a 
mass  of  hearsay  or  fictitious  evidence,  and  by  the 
conscious  or  unconscious  exaggerations  of  ignorance, 
credulity,  or  malice. 

As  an  example  of  the  kind  of  stuff  stirred  up  by 
this  parochial  inquisition,  I  shall  take  the  return 
furnished  to  the  commissioners  by  Mr.  John  Ross, 
minister  of  Lumphanan : 

'  i.  Elspet  Strathauchim,  in  Wartheil,  is  indicted  to 
have  charmed  Maggie  Clarke,  spouse  to  Patrick 
Bunny,  for  the  fevers,  this  last  year,  with  "  ane  sleipth 
and  ane  thrum  "  [a  sleeve  and  thread].  She  is  indicted, 
this  last  Hallow  e'en,  to  have  brought  forth  of  the 
house  a  burning  coal,  and  buried  the  same  in  her  own 
yard.  She  is  indicted  to  have  bewitched  Adam 
Gordon,  in  Wark,  and  to  have  been  the  cause  of  his 
death,  and  that  because,  she  coming  out  of  his  service 
without  his  leave,  he  detained  some  of  her  gear,  which 
she  promised  to  do ;  and  after  his  death  wanted  [to 
have  it  believed]  that  she  had  gotten  "  assythment "  of 
him.  She  is  indicted  to  have  said  to  Marcus  Gillam, 
at  the  Burn  of  Camphil,  that  none  of  his  bairns 
should  live,  because  he  would  not  marry  her ;  which 
is  come  to  pass,  for  two  of  them  are  dead.  She  is 
indicted  continually  to  have  resorted  to  Margaret 
Baine  her  company. 

'ii.  Isabel  Forbes.  —  She  is  indicted  to  have 
bewitched  Gilbert  Makim,  in  Glen  Mallock,  with  a 


CHAP.   IV.]  A    PAROCHIAL   INQUISITION.  363 

spindle,  a  "  rok,"  and  a  "foil ;"  as  Isabel  Ritchie  like- 
wise testified. 

'  iii.  James  Og  is  indicted  to  have  passed  on  Rud- 
day,  five  years  since,  through  Alexander  Cobain's 
corn,  and  have  taken  nine  stones  from  his  uavine  rig  " 
[corn-rick],  and  cast  on  the  said  Alexander's  "rig," 
and  to  have  taken  nine  "lokis"  [handfuls]  of  meal 
from  the  said  Alexander's  "  rig,"  and  cast  on  his  own. 
He  is  indicted  to  have  bewitched  a  cow  belonging  to 
the  said  Alexander,  which  he  bought  from  Kristane 
Burnet,  of  Cloak  ;  this  cow,  though  his  wife  had 
received  milk  from  her  the  first  night,  and  the  morn- 
ing thereafter,  gave  no  milk  from  that  time  forth,  but 
died  within  half  a  year.  He  is  indicted  to  have 
passed,  five  years  since,  on  Lammas-Day,  through 
the  said  Alexander's  corn,  and  having  "  gaine  nyne 
span/'  to  have  struck  the  corn  with  nine  strokes  of  a 
white  wand,  so  that  nothing  grew  that  year  but 
"  fichakis."  He  is  indicted  that,  in  the  year  aforesaid 
or  thereabouts,  having  corn  to  dry,  he  borrowed  fire 
from  his  neighbour,  haiffing  of  his  avine  them 
presently ;  and  took  a  "  brine  "  of  the  corn  on  his 
back,  and  cast  it  three  times  "  woodersonis "  [or 
"  withersonis,"  ut  supra,  that  is,  west  to  east,  in  the 
direction  contrary  to  the  sun's  course]  above  the 
"  kill."  He  is  indicted  that,  three  years  since, 
Alexander  Cobaine  being  in  Leith,  with  the  Laird 
of  Cors,  his  "  wittual,"  he  came  up  early  one  morn- 
ing, at  the  back  of  the  said  Alexander's  yard,  with 
a  dish  full  of  water  in  his  hand,  and  to  have  cast  the 
water  in  the  gate  to  the  said  Alexander's  door,  and 


364  WITCH,  WARLOCK,  AND  MAGICIAN.      [BOOK  II. 

then  perceiving  that  David  Duguid,  servant  to  the 
said  Alexander,  was  beholding  him,  to  have  fled 
suddenly  ;  which  the  said  David  also  testifies. 

4iv.  Agnes  Frew. — She  is  indicted  to  have  taken 
three  hairs  out  of  her  own  cow's  tail,  and  to  have  cut 
the  same  in  small  pieces,  and  to  have  put  them  in  her 
cow's  throat,  which  thereafter  gave  milk,  and  the 
neighbours'  none.  Also,  she  is  indicted  that  [she 
took]  William  Browne's  calf  in  her  axter,  and 
charmed  the  same,  as,  also,  she  took  the  clins  [hoofs] 
from  forefeitt  aff  it,  with  a  piece  of  "  euerry  bing," 
and  caused  the  said  William's  wife  to  "  yeird  "  the 
same  ;  which  the  said  William's  wife  confessed,  albeit 
not  in  this  manner.  Also,  she  took  up  Alexander 
Tailzier's  calf,  lately  [directly]  after  it  was  calved,  and 
carried  it  three  times  about  the  cow.  Also,  she  was 
seen  casting  a  horse's  fosser  on  a  cow. 

'  v.  Isabel  Eoby. — She  is  indicted  to  have  bidden  her 
gudeman,  when  he  went  to  St.  Fergus  to  buy  cattle, 
that  if  he  bought  any  before  his  home-coming,  he  should 
go  three  times  "  woodersonis  "  about  them,  and  then 
take  three  "  ruggis  "  off  a  dry  hillock,  and  fetch  home 
to  her.  Also,  that  dwelling  at  Ardmair,  there  came  in 
a  poor  man  craving  alms,  to  whom  she  offered  milk, 
but  he  refused  it,  because,  as  he  then  presently  said, 
she  had  three  folks'  milk  and  her  own  in  the  pan ;  and 
wrhen  Elspet  Mackay,  then  present,  wondered  at  it, 
he  said,  "  Marvel  not,  for  she  has  thy  farrow  kye's 
milk  also  in  her  pan."  Also,  she  is  commonly  seen 
in  the  form  of  a  hare,  passing  through  the  town,  for 
as  soon  as  the  hare  vanishes  out  of  sight,  she  appears.' 


CHAP.   IV.]  A   PAROCHIAL   INQUISITION.  365 

1  vi.  Margaret  Riancli,  in  Green  Cottis,  was  seen  in 
the  dawn  of  the  day  by  James  Stevens  embracing 
every  nook  of  John  Donaldson's  house  three  times, 
who  continually  thereafter  was  diseased,  and  at  last 
died.  She  said  to  John  Ritchie,  when  he  took  a  tack 
[a  piece  of  ground]  in  the  Green  Cottis,  that  his  gear 
from  that  day  forth  should  continually  decay,  and  so 
it  came  to  pass.  Also,  she  cast  a  number  of  stones 
in  a  tub,  amongst  water,  which  thereafter  was  seen 
dancing.  When  she  clips  her  sheep,  she  turns  the 
bowl  of  the  shears  three  times  in  their  mouth.  Also, 
James  Stevens  saw  her  meeting  John  Donaldson's 
"  hoggs  "  [sheep  a  year  old]  in  the  burn  of  the  Green 
Cottis,  and  casting  the  water  out  between  her  feet 
backward,  in  the  sheep's  face,  and  so  they  all  died. 
Also  she  confessed  to  Patrick  Gordon,  of  Kincragie, 
and  James  Gordon,  of  Drumgase,  that  the  devil  was  in 
the  bed  between  her  and  William  Ritchie,  her  harlot, 
and  he  was  upon  them  both,  and  that  if  she  happened 
to  die  for  witchcraft,  that  he  [Ritchie]  should  also  die, 
for  if  she  was  a  devil,  he  was  too. 

'There  are  three  of  these  persons,  Elspeet  Strath- 
auchim,  James  Og,  and  Agnes  Frew,  whose  accusa- 
tions the  Presbytery  of  Kincardine,  within  whose 
bounds  they  dwell,  counted  insufficient,  having  duly 
considered  the  whole  circumstances,  always  remitted 
them  to  the  trial  of  an  assize,  if  the  judges  thought  it 
expedient. 

'  [Signed]     MR.  JHONE  Ros, 

'  Minister  at  Lumphanan.' 


366  WITCH,  WARLOCK,  AND  MAGICIAN.      [BOOK  II. 

It  would  not  be  easy  to  find  a  more  painful  exhibi- 
tion of  clerical  ignorance  and  incapacity.  Probably 
many  of  the  allegations  which  Mr.  John  Ross  records 
are  true,  as  the  practice  of  charms  was  common 
enough  among  the  peasantry  both  of  Scotland  and 
England,  and  is  even  yet  not  wholly  extinct ;  but, 
taken  altogether,  they  did  not  amount  to  witchcraft,  the 
very  essence  of  which  was  a  compact  with  the  devil, 
and  in  no  one  of  the  preceding  cases  is  such  a  compact 
mentioned.  And  one  must  take  the  existence  of  the 
gross  superstition  and  credulity  which  is  here 
disclosed  to  be  irrefutable  testimony  that,  as  a  pastor 
and  teacher,  Mr.  John  Ross  was  a  signal  failure  at 
Lumphanan. 

I  have  already  alluded  to  those  pathetic  instances  of 
self-delusion  in  which  the  reputed  witch  has  been  her 
own  enemy,  and  furnished  the  evidence  needed  for  her 
condemnation  in  her  own  confession — a  confession  of 
acts  which  she  must  have  known  had  never  occurred ; 
building  up  a  strange  fabric  of  fiction,  and  perishing 
beneath  its  weight.  It  would  seern  as  if  some  of 
these  unfortunate  women  came  to  believe  in  them- 
selves because  they  found  that  others  believed  in 
them,  and  assumed  that  they  really  possessed  the 
powers  of  witchcraft  because  their  neighbours  insisted 
that  it  was  so.  Nor  will  this  be  thought  such  an 
improbable  explanation  when  it  is  remembered  that 
history  affords  more  than  one  example  of  prophets 
and  founders  of  new  religions  whom  the  enthusiastic 
devotion  of  their  followers  has  persuaded  into  a 


CHAP.   IV.]  A   PAROCHIAL    INQUISITION.  367 

belief  in  the  authenticity  of  the  credentials  which 
they  themselves  had  originally  forged,  and  the  truth 
of  the  revelations  which  they  had  invented. 

From  this  point  of  view  a  profound  interest 
attaches  to  the  official  '  dittay  '  or  accusation  against 
one  Helen  Fraser,  who  was  convicted  and  sentenced  to 
death  in  April,  1597,  since  it  shows  that  she  was 
condemned  principally  upon  the  evidence  which  she 
herself  supplied  : 

'  i.  John  Ramsay,  in  Newburght,  being  sick  of  a 
consuming  disease,  sent  to  her  house,  in  Aikinshill, 
to  seek  relief,  and  was  told  by  her  that  she  would  do 
what  lay  in  her  power  for  the  recovery  of  his  health ; 
but  bade  him  keep  secret  whatever  she  spake  or  did, 
because  the  world  was  evil,  and  spoke  no  good  of 
such  mediciners.  She  commanded  the  said  John  to 
rise  early  in  the  morning,  to  eat  "  sourrakis  "  about 
sunrise,  while  the  dew  was  still  upon  them ;  also  to  eat 
"  valcars,"  and  to  make  ulavrie  "  kale  and  soup.  More- 
over, to  sit  down  in  a  door,  before  the  fowls  flew  to  their 
roost,  and  to  open  his  breast,  that  when  the  fowls  flew 
to  the  roost  over  him  he  might  receive  the  wind  of 
their  wings  about  his  breast,  for  that  was  very  profit- 
able to  loose  his  heart-pipes,  which  were  closed.  But 
before  his  departure  from  her,  she  made  him  sit  down, 
bare-headed,  on  a  stool,  and  said  an  orison  thrice  upon 
his  head,  in  which  she  named  the  Devil. 

cii.  Item. — The  said  Helen  publicly  confessed  in 
Foverne,  after  her  apprehension,  that  she  was  a 
common  abuser  of  the  people;  and  that,  further,  to 
sustain  herself  and  her  bairns,  she  pretended  know- 


368  WITCH,  WARLOCK,  AND  MAGICIAN.      [BOOK  II. 

ledge  which  she  had  not,  and  undertook  to  do  things 
which  she  could  not.  This  was  her  answer,  when  she 
was  accused  by  the  minister  of  Foverne,  for  that  she 
abused  the  people,  and  when  he  inquired  the  cause  of 
her  evil  report  throughout  the  whole  country.  This 
she  confessed  upon  the  green  of  Foverne,  before  the 
laird,  the  minister,  and  reader  of  Foverne,  Patrick 
Findlay  in  Newburght,  and  James  Menzies  at  the 
New  Mills  of  Foverne. 

'iii.  Item. — Janet  Ingram,  wife  to  Adam  Finnie, 
dwelling  for  the  time  at  the  West  burn,  in  Balhelueis, 
being  sick,  and  affirming  herself  to  be  bewitched,  for 
she  herself  was  esteemed  by  all  men  to  be  a  witch,  she 
sent  for  the  said  Helen  Frazer  to  cure  her.  The  said 
Helen  came,  and  tarried  with  her  till  her  departure 
and  burial,  and  at  her  coming  assured  the  said  Janet 
that  within  a  short  time  she  would  be  well  enough. 
But  the  sickness  of  the  said  Janet  increased,  and  was 
turned  into  a  horrible  fury  and  madness,  in  such  sort 
that  she  always  and  incessantly  blasphemed,  and 
pressed  at  all  times  to  climb  up  the  wall  after  the 
"  heillis"  and  scraped  the  wall  with  her  hands.  After 
that  she  had  been  grievously  vexed  for  the  space  of 
two  days  from  the  coming  of  Helen  Frazer,  her 
mediciner,  to  her,  she  departed  this  life.  Being  dead, 
her  husband  went  to  charge  his  neighbours  to  convey 
her  burial,  but  before  his  returning,  or  the  coming  of 
any  neighbour  to  the  carrying  of  the  corpse,  the  said 
Helen  Frazer,  together  with  two  or  three  daughters  of 
the  said  Janet  (whereof  one  yet  living,  to  wit,  Malye 
Finnie,  in  the  Blairtoun  of  Balhelueis,  is  counted  a 


CHAP.  IV.]  A   PAROCHIAL   INQUISITION.  369 

witch),  had  taken  up  the  corpse,  and  had  carried  her, 
they  alone,  the  half  of  the  distance  to  the  kirk,  until 
they  came  to  the  Moor  of  Cowhill ;  when  the  said 
Adam  and  others  his  neighbours  came  to  them,  and  at 
their  coming  the  said  Helen  fled  away  through  the 
moss  to  Aikinshill,  and  went  no  further  towards  the 
kirk. 

4  iv.  Item. — A  horse  of  Duncan  Alexander,  in  New- 
burcht,  being  bewitched,  the  said  Helen  translated 
the  sickness  from  the  horse  to  a  young  cow  of 
the  said  Duncan  ;  which  cow  died,  and  was  cast 
into  the  burn  of  the  Newburcht,  for  no  man  would 
eat  her. 

4v.  Item. — -The  said  Helen  made  a  compact  with 
certain  laxis  fishers  of  the  Newburcht,  at  the  kirk  of 
Foverne,  in  Mallie  Skryne's  house,  and  promised  to 
cause  them  to  fish  well,  and  to  that  effect  received  of 
them  a  piece  of  salmon  to  handle  at  her  pleasure  for 
accomplishing  the  matter.  Upon  the  morrow  she 
came  to  the  Newburcht,  to  the  house  of  John 
Ferguson,  a  laxis  fisher,  and  delivered  unto  him  in  a 
closet  four  cuts  of  salmon  with  a  penny  ;  after  that 
she  called  him  out  of  his  own  house,  from  the  com- 
pany that  was  there  drinking  with  him,  and  bade  him 
put  the  same  in  the  horn  of  his  coble,  and  he  should 
have  a  dozen  of  fish  at  the  first  shot  ;  which  came  to 
pass. 

4  vi.  Item. — The  said  Helen,  by  witchcraft,  enticed 
Gilbert  Davidson,  son  to  William  Davidson,  in 
Lytoune  of  Meanye,  to  love  and  marry  Margaret 
Strauthachin  (in  the  Hill  of  Balgrescho)  directly 

24 


370  WITCH,  WAKLOCK,  AND  MAGICIAN.      [BOOK  II. 

against  the  will   of  his  parents,  to  the  utter  wreck 
of  the  said  Gilbert. 

'vii.  Item. — At  the  desire  of  the  said  Margaret 
Strauthachin,  by  witchcraft,  the  said  Helen  made 
Catherine  Fetchil,  wife  to  William  Davidson,  furious, 
because  she  was  against  the  marriage,  and  took 
the  strength  of  her  left  side  and  arm  from  her ;  in 
the  which  fury  and  feebleness  the  said  Catherine 
died. 

'  viii.  Item. — The  said  Helen,  at  the  desire  of  the 
foresaid  Margaret  Strauthachin,  bewitched  William 
Hill,  dwelling  for  the  time  at  the  Hill  of  Balgrescho, 
through  which  he  died  in  a  fury  [i.e.,  a  fit  of 
delirium]. 

'  ix.  Moreover,  at  the  desire  foresaid,  the  said  Helen 
by  witchcraft  slew  an  ox  belonging  to  the  said  William ; 
for  while  Patrick  Hill,  son  to  the  said  William,  and 
herd  to  his  father,  called  in  the  cattle  to  the  fold,  at 
twelve  o'clock,  the  said  Helen  was  sitting  in  the  yeite, 
and  immediately  after  the  outcoming  of  the  cattle  out 
of  the  fold,  the  best  ox  of  the  whole  herd  instantly  died. 

'  x.  Item  — The  said  Helen  counselled  Christane 
Henderson,  vulgarly  called  mickle  Christane,  to  put 
one  hand  to  the  crown  of  her  head,  and  the  other  to 
the  sole  of  her  foot,  and  so  surrender  whatever  was 
between  her  hands,  and  she  should  want  nothing  that 
she  could  wish  or  desire. 

'  xi.  Item. — The  said  Christane  Henderson,  being 
henwife  in  Foverne,  the  young  fowls  died  thick  ;  for 
remedy  whereof,  the  said  Helen  bade  the  said 
Christane  take  all  the  chickens  or  young  fowls,  and 


CHAP.  IV.]  A.    PAROCHIAL    INQUISITION.  37 1 

draw  them  through  the  link  of  the  crook,  and  take 
the  hindmost,  and  slay  with  a  fiery  stick,  which  thing 
being  practised,  none  died  thereafter  that  year. 

'  xii.  Item. — When  the  said  Helen  was  dwelling  in 
the  Moorhill  of  Foverne,  there  came  a  hare  betimes, 
and  sucked  a  milch  cow  pertaining  to  William 
Findlay,  at  the  Mill  of  the  Newburght,  whose  house 
was  directly  afornent  the  said  Helen's  house,  on  the 
other  side  of  the  Burn  of  Foverne,  wherethrough  the 
cow  pined  away,  and  gave  blood  instead  of  milk. 
This  mischief  was  by  all  men  attributed  to  the  said 
Helen,  and  she  herself  cannot  deny  but  she  was 
commonly  evil  spoken  of  for  it,  and  affirmed,  after  her 
apprehension  at  Foverne,  that  she  was  so  slandered. 

'  xiii.  Item. — When  Alexander  Hardy,  in  Aikinshill, 
departed  this  life,  it  grieved  and  troubled  his  con- 
science very  mickle,  that  he  had  been  a  defender  of  the 
said  Helen,  and  especially  that  he,  accompanied  with 
Malcolm  Forbes,  travailed,  against  their  conscience, 
with  sundry  of  the  assessors  when  she  suffered  an 
assize,  and  especially  with  the  Chancellor  of  the 
Assize,  in  her  favour,  he  knowing  evidently  her  to  be 
guilty  of  death. 

'  xiv.  Item. — The  said  Helen  being  a  domestic  in 
the  said  Alexander  Hardy's  house,  disagreed  with 
one  of  the  said  Alexander's  servants,  named  Andrew 
Skene,  and  intending  to  bewitch  the  said  servant,  the 
evil  fell  upon  Alexander,  and  he  died  thereof. 

4  xv.  Item.  —  When  Robert  Goudyne,  now  in 
Balgrescho,  was  dwelling  in  Blairtoun  of  Balhe- 
luies,  a  discord  fell  out  betwixt  Elizabeth  Dempster, 

24—2 


372  WITCH,  WARLOCK,  AND  MAGICIAN.      [BOOK  II. 

nurse  to  the  said  Robert  for  the  time,  and  Chris tane 
Henderson,  one  of  the  said  Helen's  familiars,  as  her 
own  confession  aforesaid  purports,  and  the  country 
well  knows.  Upon  the  which  discord,  the  said 
Christane  threatened  the  said  Elizabeth  with  an  evil 
turn,  and  to  the  performing  thereof,  brought  the  said 
Helen  Frazer  to  the  said  Robert's  house,  and  caused 
her  to  repair  oft  thereto.  After  what  time,  immedi- 
ately both  the  said  Elizabeth  and  the  infant  to  whom 
she  gave  suck,  by  the  devilry  of  the  said  Helen,  fell 
into  a  consuming  sickness,  whereof  both  died.  And 
also  Elspet  Cheyne,  spouse  to  the  said  Robert,  fell  into 
the  selfsame  sickness,  and  was  heavily  diseased  thereby 
for  the  space  of  two  years  before  the  recovery  of  his 
health. 

'  xvi.  Item. — By  witchcraft  the  said  Helen  abstracted 
and  withdrew  the  love  and  affection  of  Andrew  Tilli- 
duff  of  Rainstoune,  from  his  spouse  Isabel  Cheyne,  to 
Margaret  Neilson,  arid  so  mightily  bewitched  him, 
that  he  could  never  be  reconciled  with  his  wife,  or 
remove  his  affection  from  the  said  harlot ;  and  when 
the  said  Margaret  was  begotten  with  child,  the  said 
Helen  conveyed  her  away  to  Cromar  to  obscure  the 
fact. 

'  xvii.  Item. — Wherever  the  said  Helen  is  known,  or 
has  repaired  there  many  years  bygone,  she  has  been, 
and  is  reported  by  all,  of  whatsoever  estate  or  sex,  to 
be  a  common  and  abominable  witch,  and  to  have 
learned  the  same  of  the  late  Maly  Skene,  spouse  to 
the  late  Cowper  Watson,  with  whom,  during  her  life- 
time, the  said  Helen  had  continual  society.  The 


CHAP.   IV.]  A   PAROCHIAL    INQUISITION.  373 

said  Maly  was  bruited  to  be  a  rank  witch,  and  her 
said  husband  suffered  death  for  the  same  crime. 

'  xviii.  Item. — When  Kobert  Merchant,  in  the  New- 
brucht,  had  contracted  marriage,  and  holden  house 
for  the  space  of  two  years  with  the  late  Christane 
White,  it  happened  to  him  to  pass  to  the  Moorhill  of 
Foverne,  to  sow  corn  to  the  late  Isabel  Bruce,  the 
relict  of  the  late  Alexander  Frazer,  the  said  Helen 
Frazer  being  familiar  and  actually  resident  in  the 
house  of  the  said  Isabel,  she  was  there  at  his  coming  : 
from  the  which  time  forth  the  said  Robert  found  his 
affection  violently  and  extraordinarily  drawn  away  from 
the  said  Christane  to  the  said  Isabel,  a  great  love  being 
betwixt  him  and  the  said  Christane  always  thereto- 
fore, and  no  break  of  love,  or  discord,  falling  out  or 
intervening  upon  either  of  their  parts,  which  thing 
the  country  supposed  and  spake  to  be  brought  about 
by  the  unlawful  travails  of  the  said  Helen. 

'  [Signed]     THOMAS  TILIDEFF, 

c  Minister,  at  Fovern,  with  my  hand. 

*  Item. — A  common  witch  by  open  voice  and  com- 
mon fame.' 

I  have  given  this  '  dittay '  in  full,  from  a  convic- 
tion that  no  summary  would  do  justice  to  its  terrible 
simplicity.  Upon  the  evidence  which  it  afforded, 
Helen  Frazer  was  brought  before  the  Court  of 
Justiciary,  in  Aberdeen,  on  April  21,  1597,  and 
found  guilty  in  'fourteen  points  of  witchcraft  and 
sorcery.' 


374  WITCH,  WARLOCK,  AND  MAGICIAN.       [BOOK  II. 

The  burning  of  witches  went  merrily  on,  so  that 
the  authorities  of  Aberdeen  were  compelled  to  get  in 
an  adequate  stock  of  fuel.  We  note  in  the  municipal 
accounts,  under  the  date  of  March  10,  that  there 
was  '  bocht  be  the  comptar,  and  laid  in  be  him  in 
the  seller  in  the  Chappell  of  the  Castel  hill,  ane 
chalder  of  coillis,  price  thairof,  with  the  bieing  and 
metting  of  the  same,  xvi/$.  iiiisA.'  As  is  usually  the 
case,  the  frequency  of  these  sad  exhibitions  whetted  at 
first  the  public  appetite  for  them ;  it  grew  by  what  it 
fed  on.  One  of  the  items  of  expense  in  the  execution 
of  a  witch  named  Margaret  Clerk,  is  for  carrying  of 
'four  sparris,  to  withstand  the  press  of  the  pepill, 
quhairof  thair  was  twa  broken,  viiis.  viiid.' 

Among  the  victims  committed  to  the  flames  in 
1596-97,  we  read  the  names  of 4  Katherine  Fergus  and 
[Sculdr],  Issobel  Richie,  Margaret  Og,  Helene  Rodger, 
Elspet  Hendersoun,  Katherine  Gerard,  Christin  Reid, 
Jenet  Grant,  Helene  Frasser,  Katherine  Ferrers,  Helene 
Gray,  Agnes  Yobster,  Jonat  Douglas,  Agnes  Smelie, 
Katherine  Alshensur,  and  ane  other  witche,  callit 
*  .  .  .' — seventeen  in  all.  That  during  their  im- 
prisonment they  were  treated  with  barbarous  rigour, 
may  be  inferred  from  the  following  entries : 

Item.  To  Alexander  Eeid,  smyth,  for  twa  pair  of 

schecMUs  to  the  Witches  in  the  Stepill  . . .     xxxiisA. 

Item.  To  John  Justice,  for  burning  vpon  the  cheik 
of  four  seurerall  personis  suspect  of  witchcraft 
and  baneschit xxvisA.  vin^. 

Item.  Givin  to  Alexander  Home  for  macking  of 
joggis,  stapillis,  and  lockis  to  the  witches,  during 
the  haill  tynie  forsaid    ...         ...         ...         ...     xlvish.  viiid. 

Expense  on  Witches aucht-score,  xlii/i.  xviis/i.  iiiidf. 


CHAP,  iv.]  WITCH   MANIA    IN   ABERDEEN.  375 

On  September  21,  1597,  the  Provost,  Baillies 
and  Council  of  Aberdeen  considered  the  faithfulness 
shown  by  William  Dun,  the  Dean  of  Guild,  in  the 
discharge  of  his  duty,  '  and,  besides  this,  his  extra- 
ordinarily talcing  pains  in  the  burning  of  the  great 
number  of  the  witches  burnt  this  year,  and  on  the  four 
pirates,  and  bigging  of  the  port  on  the  Brig  of  Dee, 
repairing  of  the  Grey  Friars  kirk  and  steeple  thereof, 
and  thereby  has  been  abstracted  from  his  trade  of 
merchandise,  continually  since  he  was  elected  in  the 
said  office.  Therefore,  in  recompense  of  his  extra- 
ordinary pains,  and  in  satisfaction  thereof  (not  to 
induce  any  preparative  to  Deans  of  Guild  to  crave  a 
recompense  hereafter),  but  to  encourage  others  to 
travail  as  diligently  in  the  discharge  of  their  office, 
granted  and  assigned  to  him  the  sum  of  forty-seven 
pounds  three  shillings  and  fourpence,  owing  by  him 
of  the  rest  of  his  compt  of  the  unlawis  [fines]  of  the 
persons  convict  for  slaying  of  black  fish,  and  dis- 
charged him  thereof  by  their  presents  for  ever.' 

At  length  a  wholesome  reaction  took  place;  the 
public  grew  weary  of  the  number  of  executions,  and, 
encouraged  by  this  changes  of  sentiment,  person 
accused  of  witchcraft  boldly  rebutted  the  charge,  and 
laid  complaints  against  their  accusers  for  defamation 
of  character.  In  official  circles,  it  is  true,  a  belief  in 
the  alleged  crime  lingered  long.  As  late  as  1669, 
4  the  new  and  old  Councils  taking  into  their  serious 
consideration  that  many  malefices  were  committed 
and  done  by  several  persons  in  this  town,  who  are 
mala  fama,  and  suspected  guilty  of  witchcraft  upon 


376  WITCH,  WARLOCK,  AND  MAGICIAN.      [BOOK  II. 

many  of  the  inhabitants  of  this  town,  several  ways, 
and  that  it  will  be  necessary  for  suppressing  the  like 
in  time  coming,  and  for  punishing  the  said  persons 
who  shall  be  found  guilty  ;  therefore  they  do  unanim- 
ously conclude  and  ordain  that  any  such  person,  who 
is  suspect  of  the  like  malefices,  may  be  seized  upon, 
and  put  in  prisoun,  and  that  a  Commission  be  sent 
for,  for  putting  of  them  to  trial,  that  condign  justice 
may  be  executed  upon  them,  as  the  nature  of  the 
offence  does  merit.'  No  more  victims,  however,  were 
sacrificed ;  nor  does  it  appear  that  any  accusation  of 
witchcraft  was  preferred. 

According  to  Sir  Walter  Scott,  a  woman  was  burnt 
as  a  witch  in  Scotland  as  late  as  1722,  by  Captain 
Ross,  sheriff-depute  of  Sutherland ;  but  this  was, 
happily,  an  exceptional  barbarity,  and  for  some  years 
previously  the  pastime  of  witch-burning  had  practically 
been  extinct.  It  is  a  curious  fact  that  educated  Scotch- 
men, as  I  have  already  noted,  retained  their  super- 
stition long  after  the  common  people  had  abandoned 
it.  In  1730,  Professor  Forbes,  of  Glasgow,  published 
his  '  Institutes  of  the  Law  of  Scotland,'  in  which  he 
spoke  of  witchcraft  as  '  that  black  art  whereby  strange 
and  wonderful  things  are  wrought  by  power  derived 
from  the  devil,'  and  added:  '  Nothing  seems  plainer  to 
me  than  that  there  may  be  and  have  been  witches, 
and  that  perhaps  such  are  now  actually  existing.' 
Six  years  later,  the  Seceders  from  the  Church  of 
Scotland,  who  professed  to  be  the  true  representatives 
of  its  teaching,  strongly  condemned  the  repeal  of  the 
laws  against  witchcraft,  as  '  contrary,' they  said,  'to 


CHAP.   IV.]  DECLINE    OF   WITCHCRAFT. 


377 


the  express  letter  of  the  law  of  God/  But  they  were 
hopelessly  behind  the  time;  public  opinion,  as  the 
result  of  increased  intelligence,  had  numbered  witch- 
craft among  the  superstitions  of  the  past,  and  we  may 
confidently  predict  that  its  revival  is  impossible. 


378  WITCH,  WARLOCK,  AND  MAGICIAN.      [BOQK  II. 


CHAPTER  V. 

THE  LITERATURE  OF  WITCHCRAFT. 

IT  should  teach  us  humility  when  we  find  a  belief  in 
witchcraft  and  demonology  entertained  not  only  by 
the  uneducated  and  unintelligent  classes,  but  also  by 
the  men  of  light  and  leading,  the  scholar,  the 
philosopher,  the  legislator,  who  might  have  been 
expected  to  have  risen  above  so  degrading  a  super- 
stition. It  would  be  manifestly  unfair  to  direct  our 
reproaches  at  the  credulous  prejudices  of  the  multitude 
when  Francis  Bacon,  the  great  apostle  of  the  experi- 
mental philosophy,  accepts  the  crude  teaching  of  his 
royal  master's  '  Demonologie/  and  actually  discusses 
the  ingredients  of  the  celebrated  '  witches'  ointment, ' 
opining  that  they  should  all  be  of  a  soporiferous 
character,  such  as  henbane,  hemlock,  moonshade, 
mandrake,  opium,  tobacco,  and  saffron.  The  weak- 
ness of  Sir  Matthew  Hale,  to  which  reference  has  been 
made  in  a  previous  chapter,  we  cannot  very  strongly 
condemn,  when  we  know  that  it  was  shared  by  Sir 
Thomas  Browne,  who  had  so  keen  an  eye  for  the 
errors  of  the  common  people,  and  whose  fine  and 
liberal  genius  throws  so  genial  a  light  over  the  pages 


CHAP.  V.]     THE  LITERATURE  OF  WITCHCRAFT.  379 

of  the  '  Religio  Medici.'  In  his  '  History  of  the 
World,'  that  consummate  statesman,  poet,  and  scholar, 
Sir  Walter  Raleigh,  gravely  supports  the  vulgar 
opinions  which  nowadays  every  Board  School 
alumnus  would  reject  with  disdain.  Even  the 
philosopher  of  Malmeshury,  the  sagacious  author  of 
'The  Leviathan/  Thomas  Hobbes,  was  infected  by 
the  prevalent  delusion.  Dr.  Cudworth,  to  whom  we 
owe  the  acute  reasoning  of  the  treatises  on  '  Moral 
Good  and  Evil/  and  '  The  True  Intellectual  System 
of  the  Universe/  firmly  holds  that  the  guilt  of  a 
reputed  witch  might  be  determined  by  her  inability 
or  unwillingness  to  repeat  the  Lord's  Prayer. 
Strangest  of  it  all  is  it  to  find  the  pure  and  lofty 
spirit  of  Henry  More,  the  founder  of  the  school  of 
English  Platonists,  yielding  to  the  general  super- 
stition. With  large  additions  of  his  own,  he  re- 
published  the  Rev.  Joseph  Glanvill's  notorious  work, 
'  Sadducismus  Triumphatus  '—a  pitiful  example  of 
the  extent  to  which  a  fine  intellect  may  be  led 
astray,  though  Mr.  Lecky  thinks  it  the  most  power- 
ful defence  of  witchcraft  ever  published.  And  the 
sober  and  fair-minded  Robert  Boyle,  in  the  midst  of 
his  scientific  researches,  found  time  to  listen,  with 
breathless  interest,  to  '  stories  of  witches  at  Oxford, 
and  devils  at  Muston.' 

Among  the  Continental  authorities  on  witchcraft, 
the  chief  of  those  who  may  be  called  its  advocates 
are,  Martin  Antonio  Delrio  (1551-1608),  who  pub- 
lished, in  the  closing  years  of  the  sixteenth  century, 
his  i  Disquisitionarum  Magicarum  Libri  Sex/ a  for- 


380  WITCH,  WARLOCK,  AND  MAGICIAN.      [BOOK  II. 

midable  folio,  brimful  of  credulity  and  ingenuity, 
which  was  translated  into  French  by  Duchesne  in 
1611,  and  has  been  industriously  pilfered  from  by 
numerous  later  writers.  Delrio  has  no  pretensions 
to  critical  judgment ;  he  swallows  the  most  monstrous 
inventions  with  astounding  facility. 

Eeference  must  also  be  made  to  the  writings  of 
Kemigius,  included  in  Fez'  i  Thesaurus  Anecdotorum 
Novissimus/  and  to  the  great  work  by  H.  Institor 
and  J.  Sprenger,  '  Malleus  Maleficarum/  as  well  as  to 
Basin,  Molitor  ('  Dialogus  de  Lamiis '),  and  other 
authors,  to  be  found  in  the  1582  edition  of  'Mallei 
quorundam  Maleficarum/  published  at  Frankfort. 

On  the  same  side  we  find  the  great  philosophical 
lawyer  and  historian  John  Bodin  (1530-1596),  the 
author  of  the  '  Kepublicse,'  and  the  '  Methodus  ad 
facilem  Historiarum  Cognitionem.'  In  his  *  Demono- 
manie  des  Sorcius '  he  recommends  the  burning  of 
witches  and  wizards  with  an  earnestness  which  should 
have  gone  far  to  compensate  for  his  heterodoxy  on 
other  points  of  belief  and  practice.  He  informs  us 
that  from  his  thirty-seventh  year  he  had  been  attended 
by  a  familiar  spirit  or  demon,  which  touched  his  ear 
whenever  he  was  about  to  do  anything  of  which  his 
conscience  disapproved ;  and  he  quotes  passages  from 
the  Psalms,  Job,  and  Isaiah,  to  prove  that  spirits 
indicate  their  presence  to  men  by  touching  and  even 
pulling  their  ears,  and  not  only  by  vocal  utterances. 

Also,  Thomas  Erastus  (1524-1583),  physician  and 
controversialist,  who  took  so  busy  a  part  in  the 
theological  dissensions  of  his  time.  In  1577  he 


CHAP.  V.]     THE  LITERATURE  OF  WITCHCRAFT.  381 

published  a  tract  ('  De  Lamiis')  on  the  lawfulness  of 
putting  witches  to  death.  It  is  strange  that  he  should 
have  been  mastered  by  the  gross  imposture  of  witch- 
craft, when  he  could  expose  with  trenchant  force  the 
pretensions  of  alchemists,  astrologers,  and  Rosi- 
crucians. 

Happily,  the  cause  of  humanity,  truth  and  toler- 
ance was  not  without  its  eager  and  capable  defenders. 
The  earliest  I  take  to  have  been  the  Dutch  physician, 
Wierus,  who,  in  his  treatise  '  De  Praestigiis/  pub- 
lished at  Basel  in  1564,  vigorously  attacked  the  cruel 
prejudice  that  had  doomed  so  many  unhappy  creatures 
to  the  stake.  He  did  not,  however,  deny  the  existence 
of  witchcraft,  but  demanded  mercy  for  those  who 
practised  it  on  the  ground  that  they  were  the  devil's 
victims,  not  his  servants.  That  he  should  have 
been  wholly  devoid  of  credulity  would  have  been 
more  than  one  could  rightly  have  expected  of  a 
disciple  of  Cornelius  Agrippa. 

A  stronger  and  much  more  successful  assailant 
appeared  in  Reginald  Scot  (died  1599),  a  younger 
son  of  Sir  John  Scot,  of  Scot's  Hall,  near  Smeeth,  who 
published  his  celebrated  '  Discoverie  of  Witchcraft '  in 
1584 — a  book  which,  in  any  age,  would  have  been 
remarkable  for  its  sweet  humanity,  breadth  of  view, 
and  moderation  of  tone,  as  well  as  for  its  literary 
excellencies.  One  wonders  where  this  quiet  Kentish 
gentleman,  whose  chief  occupations  appear  to  have 
been  gardening  and  planting,  accumulated  his  eru- 
dition, and  how,  in  the  face  of  the  superstitions  of 
his  contemporaries,  he  arrived  at  such  large  and 


382  WITCH,  WARLOCK,  AND  MAGICIAN.       [BOOK  II. 


liberal  conclusions.  The  scope  of  his  great  work  is 
indicated  in  its  lengthy  title :  c  The  Discoverie 
of  Witchcraft,  wherein  the  lewd  dealing  of  Witches 
and  Witchmongers  is  notablie  detected,  the  knaverie 
of  conjurers,  the  impietie  of  enchanters,  the  follie  of 
sooth  saiers,  the  impudent  falsehood  of  couseners,  the 
infidelitie  of  atheists,  the  pestilent  practices  of  Pytho- 
nists,  the  curiositie  of  figure-casters  [horoscope- 
makers],  the  vanitie  of  dreamers,  the  beggarlie  art 
of  Alcumystrie,  the  abhomination  of  idolatrie,  the 
horrible  art  of  poisoning,  the  vertue  and  power  of 
naturall  magike,  and  all  the  conveyances  of  Legierde- 
main  and  juggling  are  deciphered :  and  many  other 
things  opened,  which  have  long  lain  hidden,  howbeit 
verie  necessarie  to  be  knowne.  Heerevnto  is  added  a 
treatise  upon  the  Nature  and  Substance  of  Spirits  and 
Devils,  etc. :  all  latelie  written  by  Reginald  Scot, 
Esquire.  1  John  iv.  1 :  "  Believe  not  e verie  spirit, 
but  trie  the  spirits,  whether  they  are  of  God;  for 
many  false  prophets  are  gone  out  into  the  world." 

From  a  book  so  well  known — a  new  edition  has 
recently  appeared — it  is  needless  to  make  extracts ; 
but  I  transcribe  a  brief  passage  in  illustration  of  the 
vivacity  and  manliness  of  the  writer : 

'  I,  therefore  (at  this  time),  do  only  desire  you  to 
consider  of  my  report  concerning  the  evidence  that  is 
commonly  brought  before  you  against  them.  See  first 
whether  the  evidence  be  not  frivolous,  and  whether 
the  proofs  brought  against  them  be  not  incredible, 
consisting  of  guesses,  presumptions,  and  impossi- 
bilities contrary  to  reason,  Scripture,  and  nature.  See 
also  what  persons  complain  upon  them,  whether  they 


CHAP.   V.]     THE  LITERATURE  OF  WITCHCRAFT.  383 

be  not  of  the  basest,  the  unwisest,  and  the  most  faith- 
less kind  of  people.  Also,  may  it  please  you,  to  weigh 
what  accusations  and  crimes  they  lay  to  their  charge, 
namely :  She  was  at  my  house  of  late,  she  would  have 
had  a  pot  of  milk,  she  departed  in  a  chafe  because  she 
had  it  not,  she  railed,  she  cursed,  she  mumbled  and 
whispered;  and,  finally,  she  said  she  would  be  even 
with  me :  and  soon  after  my  child,  my  cow,  my  sow, 
or  my  pullet  died,  or  was  strangely  taken.  Nay  (if  it 
please  your  Worship),  I  have  further  proof:  I  was 
with  a  wise  woman,  and  she  told  me  I  had  an  ill 
neighbour,  and  that  she  would  come  to  my  house  ere 
it  was  long,  and  so  did  she ;  and  that  she  had  a  mark 
about  her  waist,  and  so  had  she:  God  forgive  me, 
my  stomach  hath  gone  against  her  a  great  while. 
Her  mother  before  her  was  counted  a  witch  ;  she  hath 
been  beaten  and  scratched  by  the  face  till  blood  was 
drawn  upon  her,  because  she  hath  been  suspected,  and 
afterwards  some  of  those  persons  were  said  to  amend. 
These  are  the  certainties  that  I  hear  in  their  evidences. 
'Note,  also,  how  easily  they  may  be  brought  to 
confess  that  which  they  never  did,  nor  lieth  in  the 
power  of  man  to  do  ;  and  then  see  whether  I  have 
cause  to  write  as  I  do.  Further,  if  you  shall  see  that 
infidelity,  popery,  and  many  other  manifest  heresies 
be  backed  and  shouldered,  and  their  professors  ani- 
mated and  heartened,  by  yielding  to  creatures  such 
infinite  power  as  is  wrested  out  of  God's  hand,  and 
attributed  to  witches:  finally,  if  you  shall  perceive 
that  I  have  faithfully  and  truly  delivered  and  set 
down  the  condition  and  state  of  the  witch,  and  also 
of  the  witchmonger,  and  have  confuted  by  reason  and 


384  WITCH,  WARLOCK,  AND  MAGICIAN.      [BOOK  II. 

law,  and  by  the  Word  of  God  itself,  all  mine  adversary's 
objections  and  arguments  ;  then  let  me  have  your 
countenance  against  them  that  maliciously  oppose 
themselves  against  me. 

'  My  greatest  adversaries  are  young  ignorance  and 
old  custom.  For  what  folly  soever  tract  of  time  hath 
fostered,  it  is  so  superstitiously  pursued  of  some,  as 
though  no  error  could  be  acquainted  with  custom. 
But  if  the  law  of  nations  would  join  with  such 
custom,  to  the  maintenance  of  ignorance  and  to  the 
suppressing  of  knowledge,  the  civilest  country  in 
the  world  would  soon  become  barbarous.  For  as 
knowledge  and  time  disco vereth  errors,  so  doth  super- 
stition and  ignorance  in  time  breed  them.' 

In  another  fine  passage  Scot  says : 

'  God  that  knoweth  my  heart  is  witness,  and 
you  that  read  my  book  shall  see,  that  my  drift 
and  purpose  in  this  enterprise  tendeth  only  to 
these  respects.  First,  that  the  glory  and  power  of 
God  be  not  so  abridged  and  abused,  as  to  be  thrust 
into  the  hand  or  lip  of  a  lewd  old  woman,  whereby 
the  work  of  the  Creator  should  be  attributed  to  the 
power  of  a  creature.  Secondly,  that  the  religion  of 
the  Gospel  may  be  seen  to  stand  without  such  peevish 
trumpery.  Thirdly,  that  lawful  favour  and  Christian 
compassion  be  rather  used  towards  these  poor  souls 
than  rigour  and  extremity.  Because  they  which  are 
commonly  accused  of  witchcraft  are  the  least  sufficient 
of  all  other  persons  to  speak  for  themselves,  as  having 
the  most  base  and  simple  education  of  all  others  ;  the 
extremity  of  their  age  giving  them  leave  to  dote,  their 


CHAP.   V.]      THE  LITERATURE  OF  WITCHCRAFT.  385 

poverty  to  beg,  their  wrongs  to  chide  and  threaten 
(as  being  void  of  any  other  way  of  revenge),  their 
humour  melancholical  to  be  full  of  imaginations,  from 
whence  chiefly  proceedeth  the  vanity  of  their  con- 
fessions, as  that  they  can  transform  themselves  and 
others  into  apes,  owls,  asses,  dogs,  cats,  etc.  ;  that 
they  can  fly  in  the  air,  kill  children  with  charms, 
hinder  the  coming  of  butter,  etc. 

'  And  for  so  much  as  the  mighty  help  themselves 
together,  and  the  poor  widow's  cry,  though  it  reach 
to  heaven,  is  scarce  heard  here  upon  earth,  I  thought 
good  (according  to  my  poor  ability)  to  make  inter- 
cession, that  some  part  of  common  rigour  and  some 
points  of  hasty  judgment  may  be  advised  upon.  For 
the  world  is  now  at  that  stay  (as  Brentius,  in  a  most 
godly  sermon,  in  these  words  affirmeth),  that  even,  as 
when  the  heathen  persecuted  the  Christians,  if  any 
were  accused  to  believe  in  Christ,  the  common  people 
cried  A d  leonem  ;  so  now,  of  any  woman,  be  she  never 
so  honest,  be  she  accused  of  witchcraft,  they  cry  Ad 
ignem.' 

Scot's  attack  upon  the  credulity  of  his  contempo- 
raries, strenuous  and  capable  as  it  was,  did  not  bear 
much  fruit  at  the  time  ;  while  it  exposed  him  to 
charges  of  Atheism  and  Sadduceeism  from  several 
small  critics,  who  were  supported  by  the  authority  of 
James  I.,  and,  at  a  later  date,  of  Dr.  Meric  Casaubon. 
He  found  a  fellow-labourer,  however,  in  his  work  of 
humanity,  in  the  Rev.  George  Gifford,  of  Maldon, 
Essex,  who  in  1593  published  'A  Dialogue  concern- 

25 


386  WITCH,  WARLOCK,  AND  MAGICIAN.      [BOOK  II. 

ing  Witches  and  Witchcraft,  in  which  '  is  layed  open 
how  craftily  the  Divell  deceiveth  not  only  the  Witches 
but  Many  other,  and  so  leadeth  them  awaie  into 
Manie  Great  Errours.'  It  will  be  seen  from  the  title 
that  the  writer  does  not  adopt  the  uncompromising 
line  of  Reginald  Scot,  but  inclines  rather  to  the 
standpoint  of  Wierus.  There  is,  however,  a  good 
deal  of  ability  in  his  treatment  of  the  question  ;  and 
some  account  of  the  '  Dialogue'  reprinted  by  the  Percy 
Society  in  1842,  should  be  interesting,  I  think,  to  the 
reader. 

The  interlocutors  are  named  Samuel,  Daniel, 
Samuel's  wife,  M.  B.,  a  schoolmaster,  and  the  good- 
wife  R. 

The  dialogue  opens  with  Samuel  and  Daniel,  the 
former  of  whom  is  a  fanatical  believer  in  witches. 
1  These  evil-favoured  old  witches,'  he  says,  '  do  trouble 
me.'  He  repeats  the  common  rumour  that  there  is 
scarcely  a  town  or  village  in  the  shire  but  has  one  or 
two  witches  in  it.  '  In  good  sooth,'  he  adds,  '  I  may 
tell  it  to  you  as  to  my  friend,  when  I  go  but  into 
my  closes,  I  am  afraid,  for  I  see  now  and  then  a  hare, 
which  my  conscience  giveth  me  is  a  witch,  or  some 
witch's  spirit,  she  stareth  so  upon  me.  And  sometime 
I  see  an  ugly  weasel  run  through  my  yard;  and  there 
is  a  foul,  great  cat  sometimes  in  my  barn,  which  I 
have  no  liking  unto.'  Having  introduced  his  friend, 
who  is  less  credulous  than  himself,  to  his  wife  and 
his  home,  he  promotes  an  argument  between  him  and 
another  friend,  M.  B.,  a  schoolmaster,  on  this  qucestio 
vexata. 


CHAP.  V.]      THE  LITER  A.TURE  OF  WITCHCRAFT.  387 

M.  B.  starts  with  a  good  deal  of  fervour : 

'  The  word  of  God  doth  show  plainly  that  there  be  witches, 
and  commandeth  they  should  be  pat  to  death.  Experience  hath 
taught  too  many  what  harms  they  do.  And  if  any  have  the  gift 
to  minister  help  against  them,  shall  we  refuse  it  V 

But  after  some  discussion  he  agrees,  at  Daniel's 
instance,  to  consider  the  subject  in  a  spirit  of  sober 
argument;  and  the  first  question  they  take  up  is: 
'  Are  there  witches  that  work  by  the  Devil  ?'  The 
conversation  then  proceeds  as  follows : 

DANIEL.  It  is  so  evident  by  the  Scriptures,  and  in  all  experience, 
that  there  be  witches  which  work  by  the  devil,  or  rather,  I  may 
say,  the  devil  worketh  by  them,  that  such  as  go  about  to  prove 
the  contrary,  do  show  themselves  but  cavillers. 

M.  B.  I  am  glad  we  agree  on  that  point ;  I  hope  we  shall  in 
the  rest.  What  say  you  to  this  ?  That  the  witches  have  their 
spirits.  Some  hath  one ;  some  hath  more,  as  two,  three,  four,  or 
five.  Some  in  one  likeness  and  some  in  another,  as  like  cats, 
weasels,  toads,  or  mice,  whom  they  nourish  with  milk  or  with  a 
chicken,  or  by  letting  them  suck  now  and  then  a  drop  of  blood, 
whom  they  call  if  they  be  offended  with  any,  and  send  them  to 
hurt  them  in  their  bodies,  yea,  to  kill  them,  and  to  kill  their 
cattle. 

DANIEL.  Here  is  great  deceit,  and  great  illusion ;  here  the 
Devil  leadeth  the  ignorant  people  into  foul  errors,  by  which  he 
draweth  them  headlong  into  many  grievous  sins. 

M.  B.  Nay,  then,  I  see  you  are  awry,  if  you  deny  these  things, 
and  say  they  be  but  illusions.  ...  I  did  dwell  in  a  village  within 
these  five  years  where  there  was  a  man  of  good  wealth,  and  sud- 
denly, within  ten  days'  space,  he  had  three  kine  died,  his  gelding, 
worth  ten  pounds,  fell  lame,  he  was  himself  taken  with  a  great 
pain  in  his  back,  and  a  child  of  seven  years  old  died.  He  sent  to 
the  woman  at  E.  H.,  and  she  said  he  was  plagued  by  a  witch, 
adding,  moreover,  that  there  were  three  women  witches  in  that 
town,  and  one  man  witch,  willing  him  to  look  whom  he  most 
suspected.  He  suspected  an  old  woman,  and  caused  her  to  be 
carried  before  a  justice  of  peace  and  examined.  With  much  ado 
at  the  last  she  confessed  all,  which  was  this  in  effect — that  she 

25—2 


388  WITCH,  WARLOCK,  AND  MAGICIAN.      [BOOK  II. 

had  three  spirits,  one  like  a  cat,  which  she  called  Lightfoot ;  another 
like  a  toad,  which  she  called  Lunch;  the  third  like  a  weasel, 
which  she  called  Makeshift.  This  Lightfoot,  she  said,  one  Mother 
Bailey,  of  W.,  sold  her  above  sixteen  years  ago,  for  an  oven- cake, 
and  told  her  the  cat  would  do  her  good  service ;  if  she  would,  she 
might  send  her  of  her  errands.  This  cat  was  with  her  but  a 
while,  but  the  weasel  and  the  toad  came  and  offered  their  service. 
The  cat  would  kill  kine,  the  weasel  would  kill  horses,  the  toad 
would  plague  men  in  their  bodies.  She  sent  them  all  three  (as 
she  confessed)  against  this  man.  She  was  committed  to  the 
prison,  and  there  she  died  before  the  assizes. 

Daniel  then  strikes  into  the  conversation,  enlarging 
on  the  Scriptural  description  of  devils  as  '  mighty  and 
terrible  spirits,  full  of  rage  and  power  and  cruelty  '- 
principalities  and  powers,  the  rulers  of  the  darkness 
of  this  world — and  forcibly  insisting  that  if  spirits  so 
awful  and  potential  as  these  assumed  the  shapes  of 
such  paltry  vermin  as  cats,  mice,  toads,  and  weasels, 
it  must  be  out  of  subtilty  to  cover  and  hide  the 
mighty  tyranny  and  power  which  they  exercise  over 
the  hearts  of  the  wicked.  And  he  argues  that  such 
spirits  would  never  deign  to  be  a  witch's  servant  or 
to  do  her  bidding.  M.  B.  contends,  however,  that, 
although  he  be  lord,  yet  is  he  content  to  serve  her 
turn ;  and  the  witches  confess,  he  says,  that  they  call 
forth  their  demons,  and  send  them  on  what  errands 
they  please,  and  hire  them  to  hurt  in  their  bodies  and 
their  cattle  those  against  whom  they  cherish  angry 
and  revengeful  feelings.  '  I  am  sorry,'  says  Daniel 
mildly,  '  you  are  so  far  awry ;  it  is  a  pity  any  man 
should  be  in  such  error,  especially  a  man  that  hath 
learning,  and  should  teach  others  knowledge.' 

After  some  further  disputation,  M.  B.  is  brought  to 


CHAP.   V.]     THE  LITERATURE  OF  WITCHCRAFT.  389 

admit  that  God  giveth  the  devils  power  to  plague  and 
seduce  because  of  man's  wickedness;  but  he  asks 
whether  a  godly,  faithful  man  or  woman  may  not  be 
bewitched.  We  see,  he  says,  that  the  devil  had 
power  given  him  of  old,  as  over  Job.  But  Daniel 
will  not  admit  that  this  is  a  case  in  point,  because  it 
is  not  said  that  the  devil  dealt  with  Job  through 
the  agency  of  witches.  Thereupon  Samuel,  perceiv- 
ing the  drift  of  his  argument  to  be  that  the  devil  has 
no  need  to  act  by  instruments  so  mean  and  even 
degraded,  and  would  assuredly  never  be  at  their  com- 
mand ;  that,  consequently,  there  can  be  no  witchcraft, 
because  there  is  no  necessity  for  it,  suddenly  inter- 
poses : 

'  With  your  leave,  M.  B.,  I  would  ask  two  or  three  questions  of 
my  friend.  There  was  but  seven  miles  hence,  at  W.  H.,  one  M.  ; 
the  man  was  of  good  wealth,  and  well  accounted  of  among  his 
neighbours.  He  pined  away  with  sickness  half  a  year,  and  at 
last  died.  After  he  was  dead,  his  wife  suspected  ill-dealing.  She 
went  to  a  cunning  man,  who  told  her  that  her  husband  died  of 
witchery,  and  asked  her  if  she  did  not  suspect  any.  Yes,  there 
was  one  woman  she  did  not  like,  one  Mother  W.  ;  her  husband 
and  she  fell  out,  and  he  fell  sick  within  two  days  after,  and  never 
recovered.  He  showed  her  the  woman  as  plain  in  a  glass  as  we 
see  one  another,  and  taught  her  how  she  might  bring  her  to 
confess.  Well,  she  followed  his  counsel,  went  home,  caused  her 
to  be  apprehended  and  carried  before  a  justice  of  peace.  He 
examined  her  so  wisely  that  in  the  end  she  confessed  she  killed 
the  man.  She  was  sent  to  prison,  she  was  arraigned,  condemned, 
and  executed  \  and  upon  the  ladder  she  seemed  very  penitent, 
desiring  all  the  world  to  forgive  her.  She  said  she  had  a  spirit  in 
the  likeness  of  a  yellow  dun  cat.  This  cat  came  unto  her,  as  she 
said,  as  she  sat  by  the  fire,  when  she  was  fallen  out  with  a 
neighbour  of  hers,  and  wished  that  the  vengeance  of  God  might 
light  upon  him  and  his.  The  cat  bade  her  not  be  afraid;  she 
would  do  her  no  harm.  She  had  served  a  dame  five  years  in 


390  WITCH,  WARLOCK,  AND  MAGICIAN.      [BOOK  II. 

Kent  that  was  now  dead,  and,  if  she  would,  she  would  be  her 
servant.  "  And  whereas,"  said  the  cat,  "  such  a  man  hath  mis- 
used thee,  if  thou  wilt  I  will  plague  him  in  his  cattle."  She 
sent  the  cat ;  she  killed  three  hogs  and  one  cow.  The  man, 
suspecting,  burnt  a  pig  alive,  and,  as  she  said,  her  cat  would  never 
go  thither  any  more.  Afterward  she  fell  out  with  that  M.  She 
sent  her  cat,  who  told  her  that  she  had  given  him  that  which  he 
should  never  recover ;  and,  indeed,  the  man  died.  Now,  do  you 
not  think  the  woman  spoke  the  truth  in  all  this  ?  Would  the 
woman  accuse  herself  falsely  at  her  death  ?  Did  not  the  cat 
become  her  servant  *?  Did  not  she  send  her  ?  Did  she  not 
plague  and  kill  both  man  and  beast  ?  What  should  a  man  think 
of  this  ? 

DANIEL.  You  propound  a  particular  example,  and  let  us 
examine  everything  in  it  touching  the  witch.  You  say  the  cat 
came  to  her  when  she  was  in  a  great  rage  with  one  of  her 
neighbours,  and  did  curse,  wishing  the  vengeance  of  God  to  fall 
upon  him  and  his. 

SAM.  She  said  so,  indeed.  I  heard  her  with  my  own  ears,  for 
I  was  at  the  execution. 

DAN.  Then  tell  me  who  set  her  in  such  a  devilish  rage,  so  to 
curse  and  ban,  as  to  wish  that  the  vengeance  of  God  might  light 
upon  him  and  his  1  Did  not  the  cat  1 

SAM.  Truly  I  think  that  the  devil  wrought  that  in  her. 

DAN.  Very  well.  Then,  you  see,  the  cat  is  the  beginning  of 
this  play. 

SAM.  Call  you  it  a  play  1     It  was  no  play  to  some. 

DAN.  Indeed,  the  witch  at  last  had  better  have  wrought  hard 
than  been  at  her  play.  But  I  mean  Satan  did  play  the  juggler  ; 
for  doth  he  not  offer  his  service  1  Doth  lie  not  move  her  to  send 
him  to  plague  the  man  1  Tell  me,  is  she  so  forward  to  send,  as 
he  is  to  be  sent  1  Or  do  you  not  take  it  that  he  ruleth  in  her 
heart,  and  even  wholly  directeth  it  to  this  matter  1 

SAM.  I  am  fully  persuaded  he  ruleth  her  heart. 

DAN.  Then  was  she  his  drudge,  and  not  he  her  servant.  He 
needeth  not  to  be  hired  and  entreated;  for  if  her  heart  were  to 
send  him  anywhere,  unto  such  as  he  knoweth  he  cannot  hurt,  nor 
seeth  how  to  make  any  show  that  he  hurteth  them,  he  can 
quickly  turn  her  from  that.  Well,  the  cat  goeth  and  killeth  the 
man,  certain  hogs,  and  a  cow.  How  could  she  tell  that  the  cat 
did  it  ? 


CHAP.   V.]     THE  LITER  AT  UHE  OF  WITCHCRAFT.  391 

SAM.  How  could  she  tell  ?  Why,  he  told  her,  man,  and  she 
saw  and  heard  that  he  lost  his  cattle. 

DAN.  The  cat  would  lie — would  she  not  1  for  they  say  such 
cats  are  liars. 

SAM.  I  do  not  trust  the  cat's  words,  but  because  the  thing  fell 
out  so. 

DAN.  Because  the  hogs  and  the  cow  died,  are  you  sure  the  cat 
did  kill  them  ?  Might  they  not  die  of  some  natural  causes,  as 
you  see  both  men  and  beasts  are  well,  and  die  suddenly  1 

In  this  way  the  dialogue  proceeds,  with  a  good  deal 
of  ingenuity  and  some  degree  of  dramatic  spirit ;  and 
though  the  reasoning  is  not  without  its  fallacies,  yet 
it  is  sufficiently  clear  and  forcible,  on  the  whole,  as  a 
protest  on  the  side  of  liberality  and  tolerance. 

The  next  branch  of  the  subject  taken  up  for  con- 
sideration is  '  the  help  and  remedy  '  that  is  sought  for 
against  witches  i  at  the  hands  of  cunning  men ;' 
Daniel  contending  that,  if  the  cunning  men  can 
render  any  assistance,  it  must  be  through  the  devil's 
instrumentality,  and,  therefore,  Christian  men  are  not 
justified  in  availing  themselves  of  it.  The  alleged 
cures  performed  by  witches,  Daniel  refers  to  the 
influence  of  the  imagination ;  and  in  this  category  he 
tells  an  amusing  story.  '  There  was  a  person  in 
London,'  he  say, '  acquainted  with  the  magician  Fento. 
Now,  this  Fento  had  a  black  dog,  whom  he  called 
Bomelius.  This  party  afterwards  had  a  conceit  that 
Bomelius  was  a  devil,  and  that  he  felt  him  within 
him.  He  was  in  heaviness,  and  made  his  moan  to 
one  of  his  acquaintances,  who  had  a  merry  head,  and 
told  him  he  had  a  friend  could  remove  Bomelius. 
He  bade  him  prepare  a  breakfast,  and  he  would  bring 
him.  Then  this  was  the  cure :  he  (the  friend)  made 


392  WITCH,  WARLOCK,  AND  MAGICIAN.       [BOOK  II. 

him  be  stripped  naked  and  stand  by  a  good  fire,  and 
though  he  were  fat  enough  of  himself,  basted  him  all 
over  with  butter  against  the  fire,  and  made  him  wear  a 
sleek-stone  next  his  skin  under  his  belly,  and  the  man 
had  immediate  relief,  and  gave  him  afterwards  great 
thanks/ 

'  The  conceit,  or  imagination,  does  much,'  continues 
Daniel,  '  even  when  there  is  no  apparent  disease.  A 
man  feareth  he  is  bewitched;  it  troubleth  all  the 
powers  of  his  mind,  and  that  distempereth  his  body, 
making  great  alterations  in  it,  and  bringeth  sundry 
griefs.  Now,  when  his  mind  is  freed  from  such 
imaginations,  his  bodily  griefs,  which  flew  from  the 
same,  are  eased.  And  a  multitude  of  Satan's  is  of 
the  same  character.' 

The  conversation  next  turns  upon  the  danger  of 
shedding  innocent  blood,  which  is  inseparable  from 
the  execution  of  alleged  witches  ;  while  juries,  says 
Daniel,  must  become  guilty  of  shedding  innocent 
blood  by  condemning  as  guilty,  and  that  upon  their 
solemn  oath,  such  as  be  suspected  upon  vain  sur- 
mises, and  imaginations,  and  illusions,  rising  from 
blindness  and  infidelity,  and  fear  of  Satan  which  is 
in  the  ignorant  sort. 

M.  B.  If  you  take  it  that  this  is  one  craft  of  Satan  to  bring  many 
to  be  guilty  of  innocent  blood,  and  even  upon  their  oaths,  which 
is  horrible,  what  would  you  have  the  judges  and  juries  to  do, 
when  they  are  arraigned  of  suspicion  to  be  witches  1 

DAN.  What  would  I  have  them  do  1  I  would  wish  them  to  be 
most  wary  and  circumspect  that  they  be  not  guilty  of  innocent 
blood.  And  that  is,  to  condemn  none  but  upon  sure  ground,  and 
infallible  proof ;  because  presumptions  shall  not  warrant  or  excuse 
them  before  God,  if  guiltless  blood  be  shed. 


CHAP.   V.]     THE  LITERATURE  OF  WITCHCRAFT.  393 

Replying  to  observations  made  by  the  school- 
master, Daniel  continues  : 

'You  bring  two  reasons  to  prove  that  in  convicting  witches 
likelihoods  and  presumptions  ought  to  be  of  force  more  than 
about  thieves  or  murderers.  The  first,  because  their  dealing  is 
secret ;  the  other,  because  the  devil  will  not  let  them  confess. 
Indeed,  men,  imagining  that  witches  do  work  strange  mischiefs, 
burn  in  desire  to  have  them  hanged,  as  hoping  then  to  be  free ; 
and  then,  upon  such  persuasions  as  you  mention,  they  suppose  it 
is  a  very  good  work  to  put  to  death  all  which  are  suspected. 
But,  touching  thieves  and  murderers,  let  men  take  heed  how 
they  deal  upon  presumptions,  unless  they  be  very  strong  ;  for  we 
see  that  juries  sometimes  do  condemn  such  as  be  guiltless,  which 
is  a  hard  thing,  especially  as  they  are  upon  their  oath.  And  in 
witches,  above  all  other,  the  people  had  need  to  be  strong,  because 
there  is  greater  sleight  of  Satan  to  pursue  the  guiltless  into  death 
than  in  the  other.  Here  is  special  care  and  wisdom  to  be  used. 
And  so  likewise  for  their  confessing.  Satan  doth  gain  more  by 
their  confession  than  by  their  denial,  and  therefore  rather  be- 
wrayeth  them  himself,  and  forceth  them  unto  confession  oftener 
than  unto  denial.' 

Samuel  at  first  is  reluctant  to  accept  this  state- 
ment. It  has  always  been  his  belief  that  the  devil  is 
much  angered  when  witches  confess  and  betray 
matters  ;  and  in  confirmation  of  this  belief,  or  at 
least  as  some  excuse  for  it,  he  relates  an  anecdote. 
Of  course,  one  woman  had  suspected  another  to  be  a 
witch.  She  prevailed  upon  a  gentleman  to  send  for 
the  suspected  person,  and  having  accused  her  in  his 
presence,  left  him  to  admonish  her  with  due  severity, 
and  to  persuade  her  to  renounce  the  devil  and  all  his 
works.  While  he  was  thus  engaged,  and  she  was 
stoutly  denying  the  accusation  brought  against  her, 
a  weasel  or  lobster  suddenly  made  its  appearance. 
'  Look/  said  the  gentleman,  '  yonder  is  thy  spirit.' 


394  WITCH,  WARLOCK,  AND  MAGICIAN.      [BOOK  II. 

4  Ah,  master  !'  she  replied,  '  that  is  a  vermin  ;  there 
be  many  of  them  everywhere/  Well,  as  they  went 
towards  it,  it  vanished  out  of  sight ;  by-and-by  it  re- 
appeared, and  looked  upon  them.  4  Surely,'  said  the 
gentleman,  4it  is  thy  spirit;'  but  she  still  denied, 
and  with  that  her  mouth  was  drawn  awry.  Then  he 
pressed  her  further,  and  she  confessed  all.  She  con- 
fessed she  had  hurt  and  killed  by  sending  her  spirit. 
The  gentleman,  not  being  a  magistrate,  allowed  her 
to  go  home,  and  then  disclosed  the  affair  to  a  justice. 
When  she  reached  home  another  witch  accosted  her, 
and  said  :  '  Ah,  thou  beast,  what  hast  thou  done  ? 
Thou  hast  betrayed  us  all.  What  remedy  now  ?'  said 
she.  '  What  remedy  ?'  said  the  other ;  '  send  thy 
spirit  and  touch  him.'  She  sent  her  spirit,  and  of  a 
sudden  the  gentleman  had,  as  it  were,  a  flash  of  fire 
about  him  :  he  lifted  up  his  heart  to  God,  and  felt  no 
hurt.  The  spirit  returned,  and  said  he  could  not 
hurt  him,  because  he  had  faith.  'What  then,'  said 
the  other  witch,  '  hath  he  nothing  that  thou  mayest 
touch  ?'  i  He  hath  a  child,'  said  the  other.  *  Send 
thy  spirit,'  said  she,  '  and  touch  the  child.'  She  sent 
her  spirit  ;  the  child  was  in  great  pain,  and  died. 
The  witches  were  hanged,  and  confessed. 

Daniel,  by  an  ingenious  analysis,  soon  dismisses  this 
absurd  story,  which,  like  all  such  stories,  he  takes 
to  be  further  evidence  of  Satan's  craft,  and  no  dis- 
proof at  all  of  the  argument  he  has  laid  down. 
'  Then,'  says  Samuel,  '  I  will  tell  you  of  another  thing 
which  was  done  of  late. 

4  A   woman    suspected    of  being    a  witch,  and  of 


CHAP.   V.]     THE  LITERATURE  OF  WITCHCRAFT.  395 

having  done  harm  among  the  cattle,  was  examined 
and  brought  to  confess  that  she  had  a  spirit,  which 
resided  in  a  hollow  tree,  and  spoke  to  her  out  of  a 
hole  in  the  trunk.  And  whenever  she  was  offended 
with  any  persons  she  went  to  that  tree  and  sent  her 
spirit  to  kill  their  cattle.  She  was  persuaded  to 
confess  her  faults  openi}',  and  to  promise  that  she 
would  utterly  forsake  such  ungodly  ways  :  after  she 
had  made  this  open  confession,  the  spirit  came  unto 
her,  being  alone.  "  Ah  !"  said  he,  "thou  hast  confessed 
and  betrayed  all.  I  could  turn  it  to  rend  thee  in 
pieces  :"  with  that  she  was  afraid,  and  went  away, 
and  got  her  into  company.  Within  some  few  weeks 
after  she  fell  out  greatly  into  anger  against  one  man. 
Towards  the  tree  she  goeth,  and  before  she  came  at 
it — "  Oh  !"  said  the  spirit,  "wherefore  comest  thou  ? 
Who  hath  angered  thee  ?"  "  Such  a  man,"  said  the 
witch.  "  And  what  wouldest  thou  have  me  do  ?" 
said  the  spirit.  "He  hath,"  saith  she,  "two  horses 
going  yonder  ;  touch  them,  or  one  of  them."  Well,  I 
think  even  that  night  one  of  the  horses  died,  and  the 
other  was  little  better.  Indeed,  they  recovered  again 
that  one  which  was  not  dead,  but  in  very  evil  case. 
Now  methinketh  it  is  plain  :  he  was  angry  that  she 
had  betrayed  all.  And  yet  when  she  came  to  the 
tree  he  let  go  all  displeasure  and  went  readily.7 

There  is  much  common-sense,  as  we  should  nowa- 
days call  it,  in  Daniel's  comments  on  this  extra- 
ordinarily wild  story.  '  Do  you  think/  he  is  repre- 
sented as  saying,  k  that  Satan  lodgeth  in  a  hollow 
tree  ?  Is  he  become  so  lazy  and  idle  ?  Hath  he 


396  WITCH,  WARLOCK,  AND  MAGICIAN.      [BOOK  II. 

left  off  to  be  as  a  roaring  lion,  seeking  whom  he  may 
devour  ?  Hath  he  put  off  the  bloody  and  cruel 
nature  of  the  fiery  dragon,  so  that  he  mindeth  no 
harm  but  when  an  angry  woman  entreats  him  to  go 
kill  a  cow  or  a  horse  ?  Is  he  become  so  doting  with 
age  that  man  shall  espy  his  craft — yea,  be  found 
craftier  than  he  is  ?' 

And  now  for  the  winding-up  of  Parson  Gifford's 
'  Dialogue.'  Tis  to  be  wished  that  all  the  parsons 
of  his  time  had  been  equally  sensible  and  courageous. 

M.  B.  I  could  be  content  to  hear  more  in  these  matters  ;  I  see 
how  fondly  I  have  erred.  But  seeing  you  must  be  gone,  I  hope 
we  shall  meet  here  again  at  some  other  time.  God  keep  you  ! 

SAM.  I  am  bound  to  give  you  great  thanks.  And,  I  pray  you, 
when  occasion  serveth,  that  you  come  this  way.  Let  us  see  you 
at  my  house. 

M.  B.  I  thought  there  had  not  been  such  subtle  practices  of 
the  devil,  nor  so  great  sins  as  he  leadeth  men  into. 

SAM.  It  is  strange  to  see  how  many  thousands  are  carried 
away,  and  deceived,  yea,  many  that  are  very  wise  men. 

M.  B.  The  devil  is  too  crafty  for  the  wisest,  unless  they  have 
the  light  of  God's  Word. 

SAMUEL'S  WIFE.  Husband,  yonder  cometh  the  goodwife  E. 

SAM.  I  wish  she  had  come  sooner. 

GOODWIFE  E.  Ho,  who  is  within,  by  your  leave  ? 

SAMUEL'S  WIFE.  I  would  you  had  come  a  little  sooner ;  here 
was  one  even  now  that  said  you  were  a  witch. 

GOODWIFE  R  Was  there  one  said  I  am  a  witch?  You  do 
but  jest. 

SAMUEL'S  WIFE.  Nay,  I  promise  you  he  was  in  good  earnest. 

GOODWIFE  E.  I  a  witch  ?  I  defy  him  that  saith  it,  though 
he  be  a  lord.  I  would  all  the  witches  in  the  land  were  hanged, 
and  their  spirits  by  them. 

M.  B.  Would  you  not  be  glad,  if  their  spirits  were  hanged 
up  with  them,  to  have  a  gown  furred  with  some  of  their  skins  ? 

GOODWIFE  E.  Out  upon  them.     There  were  few  ! 

SAM.  Wife,  why  didst  thou  say  that  the  goodwife  E,  is  a 
witch  1  He  did  not  say  so. 


CHAP.   V.]      THE  LITERATURE  OF  WITCHCRAFT.  397 

SAMUEL'S  WIFE.  Husband,  I  did  mark  his  words  well  enough ; 
he  said  she  is  a  witch. 

SAM.  He  doth  not  know  her,  and  how  could  he  say  she  is  a 
witch  ? 

SAMUEL'S  WIFE.  What  though  he  did  not  know  her  ?  Did  he 
not  say  that  she  played  the  witch  that  heated  the  spit  red  hot, 
and  thrust  it  into  her  cream  when  the  butter  would  not  come  ? 

SAM.  Indeed,  wife,  thou  sayest  true.  He  said  that  was  a 
thing  taught  by  the  devil,  as  also  the  burning  of  a  hen,  or  of  a 
hog  alive,  and  all  such  like  devices. 

GOODWIFE  R.  Is  that  witchcraft  ?  Some  Scripture  man  hath 
told  you  so.  Did  the  devil  teach  it  1  Nay,  the  good  woman  at 
R.  H.  taught  it  my  husband  :  she  doth  more  good  in  one  year 
than  all  those  Scripture  men  will  do  so  long  as  they  live. 

M.  B.  Who  do  you  think  taught  it  the  cunning  woman  at 
E.H.1 

GOODWIFE  R  It  is  a  gift  which  God  hath  given  her.  I 
think  the  Holy  Spirit  of  God  doth  teach  her. 

M.  B.  You  do  not  think,  then,  that  the  devil  doth  teach  her? 
GOODWIFE  R.  How  should  I  think  that  the  devil  doth  teach 
her?     Did  you  ever  hear   that   the  devil  did  teach   any  good 
thing  ? 

M.  B.  Do  you  know  that  was  a  good  thing  ? 
GOODWIFE  R.  Was  it  not  a  good  thing  to  drive  the  evil  spirit 
out  of  any  man  ? 

M.  B.  Do  you  think  the  devil  was  afraid  of  your  spit  ? 
GOODWIFE  R.  I  know  he  was  driven  away,  and  we  have  been 
rid  of  him  ever  since. 

M.  B.  Can  a  spit  hurt  him  ] 

GOODWIFE  R.  It  doth  hurt  him,  or  it  hurteth  the  witch :  one 
of  them,  I  am  sure  :  for  he  cometh  no  more.  Either  she  can  get 
him  come  no  more,  because  it  hurteth  him :  or  else  she  will  let 
him  come  no  more,  because  it  hurteth  her. 

M.  B.  It  is  certain  that  spirits  cannot  be  hurt  but  with 
spiritual  weapons  :  therefore  your  spit  cannot  fray  nor  hurt  the 
devil.  And  how  can  it  hurt  the  witch  1  You  did  not  think  she 
was  in  your  cream,  did  you  1 

GOODWIFE  R.  Some  think  she  is  there,  and  therefore  when 
they  thrust  in  the  spit  they  say  :  *  If  thou  beest  here,  have  at 
thine  eye.' 

M.  B.  If  she  were  in  your  cream,  your  butter  was  not  very 
cleanly. 


398  WITCH,  WARLOCK,  AND  MAGICIAN.      [BOOK  II. 

GOODWIFE  R.  You  are  merrily  disposed,  M.  B.  I  know  you 
are  of  my  mind,  though  you  put  these  questions  to  me.  For  I 
am  sure  none  hath  counselled  more  to  go  to  the  cunning  folk 
than  you. 

M.  B.  I  was  of  your  mind,  but  I  am  not  now,  for  I  see  how 
foolish  I  was.  I  am  sorry  that  I  offended  so  grievously  as  to 
counsel  any  for  to  seek  unto  devils. 

GOODWIFE  R.  Why,  M.  B.,  who  hath  schooled  you  to-day? 
I  am  sure  you  were  of  another  mind  no  longer  agone  than  yester- 
day. 

SAMUEL'S  WIFE.  Truly,  goodwife  R.,  I  think  my  husband  is 
turned  also  :  here  hath  been  one  reasoning  with  them  three  or 
four  hours. 

GOODWIFE  R.  Is  your  husband  turned,  too?  I  would  you 
might  lose  all  your  hens  one  after  another,  and  then  I  would 
she  would  set  her  spirit  upon  your  ducks  and  your  geese,  and 
leave  you  not  one  alive.  Will  you  come  to  defend  witches  ?  .  .  . 

M.  B.  You  think  the  devil  can  kill  men's  cattle,  and  lame  both 
man  and  beast  at  his  pleasure:  you  think  if  the  witch  entreat 
him  and  send  him,  he  will  go,  and  if  she  will  not  have  him  go,  he 
will  not  meddle.  And  you  think  when  he  doth  come,  you  can 
drive  him  away  with  a  hot  spit,  or  with  burning  a  live  hen  or  a 

Pig- 

GOODWIFE  R.  Never  tell  me  I  think  so,  for  you  yourself  have 
thought  so ;  and  let  them  say  what  they  can,  all  the  Scripture 
men  in  the  world  shall  never  persuade  me  otherwise. 

M.  B.  I  do  wonder,  not  so  much  at  your  ignorance  as  at  this, 
that  I  was  ever  of  the  same  mind  that  you  are,  and  could  not  see 
mine  own  folly. 

GOODWIFE  R.  Folly  !  how  wise  you  are  become  of  a  sudden ! 
I  know  that  their  spirits  lie  lurking,  for  they  foster  them  ;  and 
when  anybody  hath  angered  them,  then  they  call  them  forth  and 
send  them.  And  look  what  they  bid  them  do,  or  hire  them  to 
do,  that  shall  be  done :  as  when  she  is  angry,  the  spirit  will  ask 
her,  '  What  shall  I  do  V  '  Such  a  man  hath  misused  me,'  saith 
she  ;  '  go,  kill  his  cow  ' ;  by-and-by  he  goeth  and  doeth  it.  '  Go, 
kill  such  a  woman's  hens ' ;  down  go  they.  And  some  of  them 
are  not  content  to  do  these  lesser  harms ;  but  they  will  say,  '  Go, 
make  such  a  man  lame,  kill  him,  or  kill  his  child.'  Then  are 
they  ready,  and  will  do  anything ;  and  I  think  they  be  happy 
that  can  learn  to  drive  them  away. 


CHAP.   V.]     THE  LITERATURE  OF  WITCHCRAFT.  399 

M.  B.  If  I  should  reason  with  you  out  of  the  words  of  God, 
you  should  see  that  all  this  is  false,  which  you  say.  The  devil 
cannot  kill  nor  hurt  anything ;  no,  not  so  much  as  a  poor  hen. 
If  he  had  power,  who  can  escape  him  1  Would  he  tarry  to  be 
sent  or  entreated  by  a  woman  ?  He  is  a  stirrer  up  unto  all 
harms  and  mischiefs. 

GOODWIFE  R.  What  will  you  tell  me  of  God's  word  1  Doth 
not  God's  word  say  there  be  witches  ?  and  do  not  you  think  God 
doth  suffer  bad  people  1  Are  you  a  turncoat  ?  Fare  you  well ;  I 
will  no  longer  talk  with  you. 

M.  B.  She  is  wilful  indeed.     I  will  leave  you  also. 

SAMUEL.  I  thank  you  for  your  good  company. 

About  the  same  time  that  Gifford  was  endeavour- 
ing to  teach  his  countrymen  a  more  excellent  way  of 
dealing  with  the  vexed  questions  of  demonology  and 
witchcraft,  a  Dutch  minister,  named  Bekker,  scandal- 
ized the  orthodox  by  a  frank  denial  of  all  power 
whatsoever  to  the  devil,  arid,  consequently,  to  the 
witches  and  warlocks  who  were  supposed  to  be  at  one 
and  the  same  time  his  servants  and  yet  his  employers. 
His  '  Monde  Enchante  '  (originally  written  in  Dutch) 
consists  of  four  ponderous  volumes,  remarkable  for 
prolixity  and  repetition,  as  well  as  for  a  certain 
originality  of  argument.  There  was  no  just  ground, 
however,  as  Hallam  remarks,  for  throwing  imputa- 
tions on  the  author's  religious  sincerity.  He  shared, 
however,  the  opprobrium  that  attaches  to  all  who 
deviate  in  theology  from  the  orthodox  path;  and  it 
must  be  admitted  that  his  Scriptural  explanations  in 
the  case  of  the  demoniacs  and  the  like  are  more 
ingenious  than  satisfactory. 

A  violent  trumpet-note  on  the  side  of  intolerance 
was  blown  by  King  James  I.  in  1597  in  his  famous 


400  WITCH,  WARLOCK,  AND  MAGICIAN.      [BOOK  II. 

'  Daemonologia.'  It  is  written  in  the  form  of  a 
dialogue,  and  numbers  about  eighty  closely- printed 
pages.  James,  as  the  reader  has  seen,  had  had  ample 
personal  experience  of  witches  and  their  '  cantrips/ 
and  had  'got  up'  the  subject  with  a  commendable 
amount  of  thoroughness.  He  divides  witches  into 
eight  classes,  who  severally  work  their  evil  designs 
against  mankind  ;  then  he  subdivides  into  white  and 
black  witches,  of  whom  the  former  are  the  more 
dangerous  ;  and  again  into  '  acted  '  and  *  pacted  ' 
witches,  the  former  depending  for  their  power  on 
their  supernatural  gifts,  and  the  latter  having  made  a 
compact  with  Satan  contrary  to  *  all  rules  and  orders 
of  nature,  art  or  grace.'  Further,  the  demons  have  a 
classification  of  their  own ;  some  of  the  higher  ranks 
of  the  demon archy  looking  down  contemptuously 
enough  on  those  of  the  inferior  grades,  who  consist 
of  c  the  damned  souls  of  departed  conjurers.'  These 
4  damned  souls '  discharge  all  kinds  of  mean  and 
servile  offices — bringing  fire  from  heaven  for  the 
convenience  of  their  employers  ;  conveying  bodies 
through  the  air;  conjuring  corn  from  one  field  into 
another ;  imparting  a  show  of  life  to  dead  bodies ; 
and  raising  the  wind  for  witches  to  sell  to  their 
nautical  customers — who  received  pieces  of  knotted 
rope,  and,  untying  the  first  knot,  secured  a  favourable 
breeze,  for  the  second  a  moderate  wind,  and  for  the 
third  a  violent  gale. 

After  describing  the  rites  in  vogue  on  the  con- 
clusion of  a  compact  between  witch  and  devil,  King 
James  enlarges  on  other  points  of  ceremonial,  such 


CHAP.   V.]     THE  LITERATURE  OF  WITCHCRAFT.  401 

as  the  making  of  various  magic  circles — sometimes 
round,  sometimes  triangular,  sometimes  quadrangular ; 
the  use  of  holy  water  and  crosses  in  ridicule  of  the 
papists  ;  and  the  offer  to  the  demons  of  some  living 
animal.  He  adds  that  the  great  witches'  meetings 
frequently  took  place  in  churches  :  and  he  says  that 
the  witches  mutter  and  hurriedly  mumble  through 
their  conjurations  i  like  a  priest  despatching  a  hunt- 
ing masse ; ;  and  that  if  they  step  out  of  a  circle  in  a 
sudden  alarm  at  the  horrible  appearance  assumed  by 
the  demon,  he  flies  off  with  them  body  and  soul. 

The  royal  expert  proceeds  to  indicate  the  means 
by  which  you  may  detect  a  witch.  '  There  are  two 
good  helpes  that  may  be  used  for  their  trials  ;  the 
one  is  the  finding  of  their  marke  and  the  trying  the 
insensibility  thereof.  The  other  is  their  fleeting  on 
the  water  :  for  as  in  a  secret  murther,  if  the  dead 
carkasse  be  at  any  time  thereafter  handled  by  the 
murtherer,  it  will  gush  out  of  blood,  as  if  the  blood 
were  crying  to  the  heaven  for  revenge  of  the 
murtherer,  God  having  appoynted  that  secret  super- 
naturale  signe  for  triale  of  that  secret  unnaturale 
crime,  so  it  appears  that  God  hath  appoynted  (for  a 
supernaturale  signe  of  the  monstrous  impietie  of 
witches)  that  the  water  shall  refuse  to  receive  them 
in  her  bosome  that  have  shaken  off  them  the  sacred 
water  of  Baptism  and  willingly  refused  the  benefit 
thereof:  no,  not  so  much  as  their  eies  are  able  to 
shed  teares  (threaten  and  torture  them  as  you  please) 
while  first  they  repent  (God  not  permitting  them  to 
dissemble  their  obstinacie  in  so  horrible  a  crime), 

26 


402  WITCH,  WARLOCK,  AND  MAGICIAN.      [BOOK  II. 

albeit  the  womenkind  especially  "be  able  other  waies 
to  shed  teares  at  every  light  occasion  when  they  will, 
yea  altho'  it  were  dissemblingly  like  the  crocodiles.' 

Incidentally,  our  witch-hunting  King  offers  an 
explanation  of  a  peculiarity  which,  no  doubt,  our 
readers  have  already  noted — the  great  numerical 
superiority  of  witches  over  warlocks.  '  The  reason 
is  easie,'  he  says  ;  'for  as  that  sex  is  frailer  than 
man  is,  so  is  it  easier  to  be  intrapped  in  the  grosse 
snares  of  the  devil, — as  was  over  well  prooved  to  be 
true  by  the  serpente  deceiving  of  Eva  at  the  begin- 
ning, which  makes  him  the  homelier  with  that  sex 
sensine  [ever  since]/ 

As  regards  the  external  appearance  of  witches,  he 
remarks  that  they  are  not  generally  melancholic  ; 
4  but  some  are  rich  and  worldly  wise,  some  are  fat 
and  corpulent,  and  most  part  are  given  over  unto  the 
pleasures  of  the  flesh ;  and  further  experience  daily 
proves  how  loth  they  are  to  confess  without  torture, 
which  witnesseth  their  guiltinesse.'  He  concludes 
by  asking,  '  Who  is  safe  ?'  and  replies  that  the  only 
safe  person  is  the  magistrate,  when  assiduously  em- 
ployed in  bringing  witches  to  justice.  One  Reginald 
Scot,  Esq.,  however,  hop-grower  and  brewer  of 
Smeeth,  in  Kent,  a  persistent  disbeliever  in  and 
ridiculer  of  witchcraft,  who  had  the  courage  to  break 
lances  with  the  King  and  the  bench  of  Bishops  in 
contemporary  pamphlets,  and  is  called  by  the  King 
an  4  Englishman  of  damnable  opiniones,'  irreverently 
answered  this  question  by  saying  that  the  only  safe 
person  was  the  King  himself,  as  his  sex  prevented 


CHAP.  V.]      THE  LITERATURE  OF  WITCHCRAFT.  403 

his  being  taken  for  a  witch,  and  the  whole  kingdom 
was  satisfied  that  he  was  no  conjurer. 

In  1616,  John  Gotta,  a  Northampton  physician, 
published  a  forcibly  written  attack  on  the  vulgar 
delusion,  under  the  title  of  '  The  Trial  of  Witchcraft,' 
which  reached  a  second  (and  enlarged)  edition  in 
1624.  Cotta  was  also  the  author  of  a  fierce  blast 
against  quacks  — '  Discovery  of  the  Dangers  of 
ignorant  Practisers  of  Physick  in  England/  1612; 
and  of  a  not  less  vehement  attack  on  the  aurum 
potabile  of  the  chemists,  entitled,  '  Cotta  contra 
Antonium,  or  An  Ant.  Anthony/  1623. 

There  is  a  lively  work  by  John  Gaul,  preacher  of 
the  Word  at  Great  Haughton,  in  the  county  of 
Huntingdon — '  Select  Cases  of  Conscience  touching 
Witches  and  Witchcraft/  1646,  which  is  worth 
looking  into.  Gaul  was  a  courageous  and  persevering 
opponent  of  the  great  witch-finder,  Hopkins. 

The  unhappy  victims  of  popular  prejudice  found  a 
strenuous  champion  also  in  Sir  Robert  Filmer,  who, 
in  1653,  published  his  '  Advertisement  to  the  Jury- 
men of  England,  touching  Witches,  together  with  a 
Difference  between  an  English  and  Hebrew  Witch.' 
Filmer  is  best  known  to  students  by  his  £  Patriarcha/ 
an  apology  for  the  paternal  government  of  kings, 
which  does  violence  to  all  constitutional  principles, 
but  has  at  least  the  negative  merit  of  obvious  sincerity 
on  the  part  of  its  writer.  It  is  somewhat  surprising 
to  find  a  mind  like  Filmer's,  fettered  as  it  was  by  so 

26—2 


404  WITCH,  WARLOCK,  AND  MAGICIAN.      [BOOK  II. 

many  prejudices  and  a  slavish  adherence  to  prescrip- 
tion, openly  urging  the  cause  of  tolerance  and 
enlightenment,  and  vigorously  demolishing  the  sham 
arguments  by  which  the  believers  in  witchcraft 
endeavoured  to  support  their  grotesque  theories. 

Three  years  later  followed  on  the  same  side  a 
certain  Thomas  Ady,  M.A.,  who,  with  considerable 
vivacity,  fulminated  against  the  witch-mongers  and 
witch-torturers  in  his  tractate,  '  A  Candle  in  the 
Dark  ;  or,  A  Treatise  concerning  the  Nature  of 
Witches  and  Witchcraft  :  being  Advice  to  Judges, 
Sheriffs,  Justices  of  the  Peace,  and  Grand  Jurymen, 
what  to  do  before  they  pass  sentence  on  such  as  are 
arraigned  for  their  lives  as  Witches.'  The  quaintly  - 
worded  dedication  ran  as  follows  : 

'  To  the  Prince  of  the  Kings  of  the  Earth.  It  is 
the  manner  of  men,  0  heavenly  King,  to  dedicate 
their  books  to  some  great  men,  thereby  to  have  their 
works  protected  and  countenanced  among  them  ;  but 
Thou  only  art  able  by  Thy  Holy  Spirit  of  Truth,  to 
defend  Thy  Truth,  and  to  make  it  take  impression  in 
the  heart  and  understanding  of  men.  Unto  Thee 
alone  do  I  dedicate  this  work,  entreating  Thy  Most 
High  Majesty  to  grant  that,  whoever  shall  open  this 
book,  Thy  Holy  Spirit  may  so  possess  their  under- 
standing as  that  the  Spirit  of  error  may  depart  from 
them,  and  that  they  may  read  and  try  Thy  Truth  by 
the  touchstone  of  Thy  Truth,  the  Holy  Scriptures  ; 
and  finding  that  Truth,  may  embrace  it  and  forsake 
their  darksome  inventions  of  Anti- Christ,  that  have 


CHAP.   V.]      THE  LITERATURE  OF  WITCHCRAFT.  405 

deluded  and  defiled  the  nations  now  and  in  former 
ages.  Enlighten  the  world,  Thou  art  the  Light  of 
the  World,  and  let  darkness  be  no  more  in  the  world, 
now  or  in  any  future  age  ;  but  make  all  people  to 
walk  as  children  of  the  light  for  ever  ;  and  destroy 
Anti- Christ  that  hath  deceived  the  nations,  and  save 
us  the  residue  by  Thyself  alone  ;  and  let  not  Satan 
any  more  delude  us,  for  the  Truth  is  thine  for  ever.' 

In  1669  John  Wagstaffe  published  '  The  Question 
of  Witchcraft  Debated.'  According  to  Wood,  he  was 
the  son  of  John  Wagstaffe,  a  London  citizen  ;  was 
born  in  Cheapside  ;  entered  as  a  commoner  of  Oriel 
College,  Oxford,  towards  the  end  of  1649  ;  took  the 
degrees  in  Arts,  and  applied  himself  to  the  study  of 
politics  and  other  learning.  '  At  length  being  raised 
from  an  academical  life  to  the  inheritance  of  Hasland 
by  the  death  of  an  uncle,  who  died  without  male 
issue,  he  spent  his  life  afterwards  in  single  estate/ 
He  died  in  1677.  Wood  describes  him  as  (  a  little 
crooked  man,  and  of  a  despicable  presence.  He  was 
laughed  at  by  the  boys  of  this  University  because,  as 
they  said,  he  himself  looked  like  a  little  wizard.' 

His  book  is  illuminated  throughout  by  the  generous 
sympathies  of  a  large  and  liberal  mind.  His  perora- 
tion has  been  described,  and  not  unjustly,  as  4  lofty ' 
and  '  memorable,'  and,  when  animated  by  a  noble 
earnestness,  the  writer's  language  rises  into  posi- 
tive eloquence.  '  I  cannot  think,'  he  says,  '  without 
trembling  and  horror  on  the  vast  numbers  of  people 
that  in  several  ages  and  several  countries  have  been 


406  WITCH,  WARLOCK,  AND  MAGICIAN.      [BOOK  IF. 

sacrificed  unto  this  cold  opinion.  Thousands,  ten 
thousands,  are  upon  record  to  have  been  slain,  and 
many  of  them  not  with  simple  deaths,  but  horrid, 
exquisite  tortures.  And  yet,  how  many  are  there 
more  who  have  undergone  the  same  fate,  of  whom 
we  have  no  memorial  extant  ?  Since  therefore  the 
opinion  of  witchcraft  is  a  mere  stranger  unto 
Scripture,  and  wholly  alien  from  true  religion  ;  since 
it  is  ridiculous  by  asserting  fables  and  impossibilities ; 
since  it  appears,  when  duly  considered,  to  be  all 
bloody  and  full  of  dangerous  consequence  unto  the 
lives  and  safety  of  men;  I  hope  that  with  this  my 
discourse,  opposing  an  absurd  and  pernicious  error, 
I  cannot  at  all  disoblige  any  sober,  unbiased  person, 
especially  if  he  be  of  such  ingenuity  as  to  have  freed 
himself  from  a  slavish  subjection  unto  those  preju- 
dicial opinions  which  custom  and  education  do  with 
too  much  tyranny  impose. 

'  If  the  doctrine  of  witchcraft  should  be  carried  up 
to  a  height,  and  the  inquisition  after  it  should  be 
entrusted  in  the  hands  of  ambitious,  covetous,  and 
malicious  men,  it  would  prove  of  far  more  fatal  con- 
sequences unto  the  lives  and  safety  of  mankind  than 
that  ancient  heathenish  custom  of  sacrificing  men 
unto  idol  gods,  insomuch  that  we  stand  in  need  of 
another  Heracles  Liberator,  who,  as  the  former  freed 
the  world  from  human  sacrifice,  should,  in  like 
manner,  travel  from  country  to  country,  and  by  his 
all -commanding  authority  free  it  from  this  evil  and 
base  custom  of  torturing  people  to  confess  themselves 
witches,  and  burning  them  after  extorted  confessions. 


CHAP.  V.]     THE  LITERATURE  OF  WITCHCRAFT.  407 

Surely  the  blood  of  men  ought  not  to  be  so  cheap, 
nor  so  easily  to  be  shed  by  those  who,  under  the 
name  of  God,  do  gratify  exorbitant  passions  and 
selfish  ends  ;  for  without  question,  under  this  side 
heaven,  there  is  nothing  so  sacred  as  the  life  of  man, 
for  the  preservation  whereof  all  policies  and  forms 
of  government,  all  laws  and  magistrates  are  most 
especially  ordained.  Wherefore  I  presume  that  this 
discourse  of  mine,  attempting  to  prove  the  vanity 
and  impossibility  of  witchcraft,  is  so  far  from  any 
deserved  censure  and  blame,  that  it  rather  deserves 
commendation  and  praise,  if  I  can  in  the  least  measure 
contribute  to  the  saving  of  the  lives  of  men. ' 

Meric  Casaubon,  a  man  of  abundant  learning  and 
not  less  abundant  superstition,  attempted  a  reply  to 
Wagstaffe  in  his  treatise  '  Of  Credulity  and  Incredulity 
in  Things  Divine  and  Spiritual'  (1670). 

At  Thornton,  in  the  parish  of  Gas  wold,  Yorkshire, 
was  born,  on  the  3rd  of  February,  1610,  one  of  the 
ablest  and  most  successful  of  the  adversaries  of  the 
witch- maniacs,  John  Webster.  It  is  supposed  that 
he  was  educated  at  Cambridge  ;  but  the  first  event 
in  his  career  of  which  we  have  any  certain  knowledge 
is  his  admission  to  holy  orders  in  the  Church  of 
England  by  Dr.  Morton,  Bishop  of  Durham.  In 
1634  we  find  him  officiating  as  curate  at  Kildwick  in 
Craven,  and  nine  years  later  as  Master  of  the  Free 
Grammar  School  at  Clitheroe.  He  seems  afterwards 
to  have  held  for  a  time  a  military  chaplaincy,  then  to 


408  WITCH,  WARLOCK,  AND  MAGICIAN.      [BOOK  II. 

have  withdrawn  from  the  Church  of  England,  and 
taken  refuge  in  some  form  of  Dissent.  In  1653  his 
new  religious  views  found  expression  in  his  '  Saints' 
Guide,'  and  in  1654,  in  '  The  Judgment  Set  and  the 
Books  Opened,'  a  series  of  sermons  which  he  had 
originally  preached  at  All  Hallows'  Church  in  Lom- 
bard Street.  It  was  in  this  church  the  incident 
occurred  which  Wood  has  recorded  :  '  On  the  12th  of 
October,  1653,  William  Erbury,  with  John  Webster, 
sometime  a  Cambridge  scholar,  endeavoured  to  knock 
down  learning  and  the  ministry  both  together  in  a 
disputation  that  they  then  had  against  two  ministers 
in  a  church  in  Lombard  Street,  London.  Erbury 
then  declared  that  the  wisest  ministers  and  the  purest 
churches  were  at  that  time  befooled,  confounded,  and 
defiled  by  reason  of  learning.  Another  while  he 
said  that  the  ministry  were  monsters,  beasts,  asses, 
greedy  dogs,  false  prophets,  and  that  they  are  the 
Beast  with  seven  heads  and  ten  horns.  The  same 
person  also  spoke  out  and  said  that  Babylon  is 
the  Church  in  her  ministers,  and  that  the  Great 
Whore  is  the  Church  in  her  worship,  etc.,  so  that 
with  him  there  was  an  end  of  ministers  and  churches 
and  ordinations  altogether.  While  these  things  were 
babbled  to  and  fro,  the  multitude,  being  of  various 
opinions,  began  to  mutter,  and  many  to  cry  out,  and 
immediately  it  came  to  a  meeting  or  tumult  (call  it 
which  you  please),  wherein  the  women  bore  away  the 
bell,  but  lost  some  of  them  their  kerchiefs  ;  and  the 
dispute  being  hot,  there  was  more  danger  of  pulling 
down  the  church  than  the  ministry.' 


CHAP.   V.]     THE  LITERATURE  OF  WITCHCRAFT.  409 

In  1654,  our  iconoclastic  enthusiast  strongly — but 
not  without  good  reason — assailed  the  educational 
system  then  in  vogue  at  Oxford  and  Cambridge  in 
his  treatise,  '  Academiarurn  Examen/  which  created 
quite  a  sensation  in  '  polite  circles,'  fluttering  the 
dove-cots  of  the  rulers  of  the  two  Universities.  Very 
curious,  however,  are  its  sympathetic  references  to 
the  old  Hermetic  mysteries,  Rosicrucianism,  and 
astrology,  to  the  fanciful  abstractions  and  dreamy 
speculations  of  Paracelsus,  Van  Helinont,  Fludd,  and 
Dr.  Dee.  One  cannot  but  wonder  that  so  acute  and 
vigorous  an  intellect  should  have  allowed  itself  to  be 
entangled  in  the  delusions  of  the  occult  sciences. 
But  his  study  of  the  works  of  the  old  philosophers 
was,  no  doubt,  the  original  motive  of  the  laborious 
research  which  resulted  in  his  '  Metallographia ;  or, 
A  History  of  Metals'  (1671).  In  this  learned  and 
comprehensive  treatise  are  declared  '  the  signs  of  Ores 
and  Minerals,  both  before  and  after  Digging,  the 
causes  and  manner  of  their  generations,  their  kinds, 
sorts,  and  differences  ;  with  the  description  of  sundry 
new  Metals,  or  Semi- Metals,  and  many  other  things 
pertaining  to  Mineral  Knowledge.  As  also  the  hand- 
ling and  showing  of  their  Vegetability,  and  the  dis- 
cussion of  the  most  difficult  Questions  belonging  to 
Mystical  Chymistry,  as  of  the  Philosopher's  Gold, 
their  Mercury,  the  Liquor  Alkahest,  Aurum  potabile, 
and  such  like.  Gathered  forth  of  the  most  approved 
Authors  that  have  written  in  Greek,  Latin,  or  High 
Dutch,  with  some  Observations  and  Discoveries  of  the 
Author  Himself.  By  John  Webster,  Practitioner  in 


410  WITCH,  WARLOCK,  AND  MAGICIAN.      [BOOK  II. 

Physick  and  Chirurgery.  "  Qui  principia  naturalia 
in  seipso  ignoraverit,  hie  jam  multum  remotus  est  ab 
arte  nostra,  quoniam  non  habet  radiam  veram  super 
quam  in  ten  tionem  suamfundit. ' '  Geber,  Sum.  Perfect. , 
lib.  L,  p.  2i: 

In  1677,  Webster,  who  had  abandoned  the  cure  of 
souls  for  that  of  bodies,  produced  the  work  which 
entitles  him  to  honourable  mention  in  these  pages. 
According  to  the  fashion  of  the  day,  its  title  was 
almost  as  long  as  a  table  of  contents.  I  transcribe 
it  here  in  extenso : 

6  The  Displaying  of  supposed  Witchcraft,  Wherein 
is  affirmed  that  there  are  many  sorts  of  Deceivers  and 
Impostors.  And  Divers  persons  under  a  passive 
Delusion  of  Melancholy  and  Fancy.  But  that  there 
is  a  Corporeal  League  made  betwixt  the  Devil  and  the 
Witch,  Or  that  he  sucks  on  the  Witches  Body,  has 
Carnal  Copulation,  or  that  Witches  are  turned  into 
Cats  or  Dogs,  raise  Tempests  or  the  like,  is  utterly 
denied  and  disproved.  Wherein  also  is  handled  the 
Existence  of  Angels  and  Spirits,  the  Truth  of  Appari- 
tions, the  Nature  of  Astral  and  Sidereal  Spirits,  the 
Force  of  Charms  and  Philters ;  with  other  Abstruse 
Matters.  By  John  Webster,  Practitioner  in  Physic. 
"  Falsce  etenim  opiniones  Hominum  prceoccupantes,  non 
solumsurdos  sed  utccecosfaciunt,  ita  ut  videre  nequeant, 
quce  aliis  perspicua  apparent."  Galen,  lib.  viii.,  de 
Comp.  Med.  London.  Printed  by  I.  M.,  and  are  to 
be  sold  by  the  Booksellers  in  London,  1677.' 

W^ebster,  who  was  evidently  a  man  of  restless  and 
inquiring  intellect,  and  independent  judgment,  died 


CHAP.   V.]      THE  LITERATURE  OF  WITCHCRAFT.  411 

on  June  18,  1682,  and  was  buried  in  St.  Margaret's, 
Clitheroe,  where  his  monument  may  still  be  seen.  Its 
singular  inscription  must  have  been  devised  by  some 
astrological  sympathizer  : 

Qui  hanc  figuram  intelligunt 
Me  etiam  intellexisse,  intelligent. 

Here  follows  a  mysterious  figure  of  the  sun,  with 
several  circles  and  much  astrological  lettering,  which 
it  is  unnecessary  to  reproduce.  The  inscription  con- 
tinues : 

Hie  jacet  ignotus  mundo  mersus  que  tumultus 
Invidise,  semper  mens  tamen  sequa  fecit, 
Multa  tulit  veterum  ut  sciret  secreta  sophorum 
Ac  tandem  vires  noverit  ignis  aquae. 

Johannes  Hyphantes  sive  Webster. 

In  villa  Spinosa  supermontana,  in 

Parochia  silvse  cuculatse,  in  agro 

Eboracensi,  natus  1610,  Feb.  3. 

Ergastulum  animse  deposuit  1682,  Junii  18. 

Annoq.  setatis  suse  72  currente. 
Sicq.  peroravit  moriens  mundo  huic  valedicens, 
Aurea  pax  vivis,  requies  seterna  sepultis. 

In  1728,  Andrew  Millar,  at  the  sign  of  The 
Buchanan's  Head,  against  St.  Clement's  Church  in 
the  Strand,  published  '  A  System  of  Magick  :  or,  A 
History  of  the  Black  Art,'  by  Daniel  Defoe  ;  a  book 
which,  though  it  by  no  means  justifies  its  title,  is 
one  of  more  than  passing  interest,  partly  from  the 
renown  of  its  author,  and  partly  from  the  light  it 
throws  on  the  popularity  of  magic  among  the  English 
middle  classes  in  the  earlier  years  of  the  eighteenth 


412  WITCH,  WARLOCK,  AND  MAGICIAN.      [BOOK  II. 

century.  As  it  has  not  been  reprinted  for  the  last 
fifty  years,  and  is  not  very  generally  known,  some 
glimpses  of  the  stuff  it  is  made  of  may  be  acceptable  to 
the  curious  reader.* 

In  his  preface  Defoe  lavishes  a  good  deal  of  con- 
tempt on  contemporary  pretenders  to  the  character  of 
magician,  who  by  sham  magical  practices  imposed  on  a 
public  ignorant,  and  therefore  credulous.  Magicians, 
he  says, in  the  first  ages  were  wise  men ;  in  the  middle 
ages,  madmen  ;  in  these  latter  ages,  they  are  cunning 
men.  In  the  earliest  times  they  were  honest  ;  in  the 
middle  time,  rogues  ;  in  these  last  times,  fools.  At 
first  they  dealt  with  nature  ;  then  with  the  devil  ; 
and  now,  not  with  the  devil  or  with  nature  either. 
In  the  first  ages  the  magicians  were  wiser  than  the 
people  ;  in  the  second  age  wickeder  than  the  people  ; 
and  in  this  later  age  the  people  are  both  worse  and 
wickeder  than  the  magicians.  Like  many  other 
generalizations,  this  one  of  Defoe's  is  more  pointed 
than  true  ;  and  it  is  evident  that  the  so-called  magi- 
cians could  not  have  flourished  had  there  not  been  an 
ignorant  class  who  readily  accepted  their  pretensions. 

Defoe's  account  of  the  origin  of  magic  is  so  vague 
as  to  suggest  that  he  knew  very  little  of  the  sub- 
ject he  was  writing  about.  '  I  have  traced  it,'  he  says, 
'  as  far  back  as  antiquity  gives  us  any  clue  to  dis- 
cover it  by  :  it  seems  to  have  its  beginning  in  the 
ignorance  and  curiosity  of  the  darkest  ages  of  the 
world,  when  miracle  and  something  wonderful  was 

*  Some  authorities  doubt  the  authorship  ;  but  the  internal 
evidence  seems  to  me  to  justify  the  claim  made  for  it  as  Defoe's. 


CHAP.   V.]      THE  LITERATURE  OF  WITCHCRAFT.  413 

expected  to  confirm  every  advanced  notion  ;  and 
when  the  wise  men,  having  racked  their  invention  to 
the  utmost,  called  in  the  devil  to  their  assistance  for 
want  of  better  help  ;  and  those  that  did  not  run  into 
Satan's  measures,  and  give  themselves  up  to  the 
infernal,  yet  trod  so  near,  and  upon  the  very  verge 
of  Hell,  that  it  was  hard  to  distinguish  between  the 
magician  and  the  devil,  and  thus  they  have  gone 
on  ever  since  :  so  that  almost  all  the  dispute  between 
us  and  the  magicians  is  that  they  say  they  converse 
with  good  spirits,  and  we  say  if  they  deal  with  any 
spirits,  it  is  with  the  devil.' 

Here  the  greatness  of  his  theme  stimulates  Defoe 
into  poetry,  which  differs  very  little,  however,  from 
his  prose,  so  that  a  brief  specimen  will  content 
everybody  : 

*  Hail !  dangerous  science,  falsely  called  sublime, 
Which  treads  upon  the  very  brink  of  crime. 
Hell's  mimic,  Satan's  mountebank  of  state, 
Deals  with  more  devils  than  Heaven  did  e'er  create. 
The  infernal  juggling-box,  by  Heaven  designed, 
To  put  the  grand  parade  upon  mankind. 
The  devil's  first  game  which  he  in  Eden  played, 
When  he  harangued  to  Eve  in  masquerade.' 

Dividing  his  treatise  into  two  parts,  our  author,  in 
the  introduction  to  Part  L,  discusses  the  meaning  of 
the  principal  terms  in  magical  lore  ;  who,  and  what 
kind  of  people,  the  magicians  were  ;  and  the  mean- 
ing originally  given  to  the  words  '  magic '  and 
'magician.'  As  a  matter  of  course,  he  strays  back 
to  the  old  Chaldean  days,  when  a  magician,  he  says, 
was  simply  a  mathematician,  a  man  of  science,  who, 


414  WITCH,  WARLOCK,  AND  MAGICIAN.      [BOOK  II. 

stored  with  knowledge  and  learning,  was  a  kind  of 
walking  dictionary  to  other  people,  instructing  the 
rest  of  mankind  on  subjects  of  which  they  were 
ignorant  ;  a  wise  man,  in  fact,  who  interpreted  omens, 
ill  signs,  tokens,  and  dreams  ;  understood  the  signs 
of  the  times,  the  face  of  the  heavens,  and  the 
influences  of  the  superior  luminaries  there.  When 
all  this  wisdom  became  more  common,  and  the  magi 
had  communicated  much  of  their  knowledge  to  the 
people  at  large,  their  successors,  still  aspiring  to  a 
position  above,  and  apart  from,  the  rest  of  the  world, 
were  compelled  to  push  their  studies  farther,  to 
inquire  into  nature,  to  view  the  aspect  of  the  heavens, 
to  calculate  the  motions  of  the  stars,  and  more  par- 
ticularly to  dwell  upon  their  influences  in  human 
affairs — thus  creating  the  science  of  astrology.  But 
these  men  neither  had,  nor  pretended  to  have,  any 
compact  or  correspondence  with  the  devil  or  with 
any  of  his  works.  They  were  men  of  thought,  or,  if 
you  please,  men  of  deeper  thinking  than  the  ordinary 
sort  ;  they  studied  the  sciences,  inquired  into  the 
works  of  nature  and  providence,  studied  the  meaning 
and  end  of  things,  the  causes  and  events,  and  con- 
sequently were  able  to  see  further  into  the  ordinary 
course  and  causes  both  of  things  about  them,  and 
things  above  them,  than  other  men. 

Such    were     the    world's     gray    forefathers,    the 
magicians   of  the   elder   time,   in  whom  was   found 
*  an  excellent  spirit  of  wisdom.'     There  were  others— 
not  less  learned — whose  studies  took  a  different  direc- 
tion ;  who  inquired  into  the  structure  and  organiza- 


CHAP.   V.]      THE  LITERATURE  OF  WITCHCRAFT.  415 

tion  of  the  human  body  ;  who  investigated  the  origin, 
the  progress,  and  the  causes  of  diseases  and  dis- 
tempers, both  in  men  and  women ;  who  sought  out 
the  physical  or  medicinal  virtues  of  drugs  and  plants  ; 
and  as  by  these  means  they  made  daily  discoveries  in 
nature,  of  which  the  world,  until  then,  was  ignorant, 
and  by  which  chey  performed  astonishing  cures,  they 
naturally  gained  the  esteem  and  reverence  of  the 
people. 

Sir  Walter  Ealeigh  contends  that  only  the  word 
'  magic,'  and  not  the  magical  art,  is  derived  from 
Simon  Magus.  He  adds  that  Simon's  name  was  not 
Magus,  a  magician,  but  Gors,  a  person  familiar  with 
evil  spirits  ;  and  that  he  usurped  the  title  of  Simon 
the  Magician  simply  because  it  was  then  a  good  and 
honourable  title.  Defoe  avails  himself  of  Raleigh's 
authority  to  sustain  his  own  opinion,  that  there  is 
a  manifest  difference  between  magic,  which  is  wisdom 
and  supernatural  knowledge,  and  the  witchcraft  and 
conjuring  which  we  now  understand  by  the  word. 

In  his  second  chapter  Defoe  classifies  the  magic  of 
the  ancients  under  three  heads  :  i.  Natural,  which 
included  the  knowledge  of  the  stars,  of  the  motions 
of  the  planetary  bodies,  and  their  revolutions  and 
influences ;  that  is  to  say,  the  study  of  nature,  of 
philosophy,  and  astronomy  ;  ii.  Artificial  or  Rational, 
in  which  was  included  the  knowledge  of  all  judicial 
astrology,  the  casting  or  calculating  nativities,  and  the 
cure  of  diseases —  ( 1 )  by  particular  charms  and  figures 
placed  in  this  or  that  position  ;  (2)  by  herbs  gathered 
at  this  or  that  particular  crisis  of  time  ;  (3)  by  saying 


416  WITCH,  WARLOCK,  AND  MAGICIAN.      [BOOK  II. 

such  and  such  words  over  the  patient  ;  (4)  b}'  such 
and  such  gestures  ;  (5)  by  striking  the  flesh  in  such 
and  such  a  manner,  and  innumerable  such-like  pieces 
of  mimicry,  working  not  upon  the  disease  itself,  but 
upon  the  imagination  of  the  patient,  and  so  affecting 
the  cure  by  the  power  of  nature,  though  that  nature 
were  set  in  operation  by  the  weakest  and  simplest 
methods  imaginable  ;  and,  iii.  Diabolical,  which  was 
wrought  by  and  with  the  concurrence  of  the  devil, 
carried  on  by  a  correspondence  with  evil  spirits — 
with  their  help,  presence,  and  personal  assistance — and 
practised  chiefly  by  their  priests.  Defoe  argues  that 
the  ancients  at  first  were  acquainted  only  with  the 
purer  form  of  magic,  and  that,  therefore,  sorcery  and 
witchcraft  were  of  much  later  development.  The 
cause  and  motive  of  this  development  he  traces  in  his 
third  chapter  ('  Of  the  Reason  and  Occasion  which 
brought  the  ancient  honest  Magi,  whose  original 
study  was  philosophy,  astronomy,  and  the  works  of 
nature,  to  turn  sorcerers  and  wizards,  and  deal 
with  the  Devil,  and  how  their  Conversation  began5). 
Egyptologists  will  find  Defoe's  comments  upon 
Egyptian  magic  refreshingly  simple  and  unhistorical, 
and  his  identifications  of  the  Pyramids  with  magical 
practices  is  wildly  vague  and  hypothetical.  Of  the 
magic  which  was  really  taught  and  practised  among 
the  ancient  people  of  Egypt,  Defoe,  of  course,  knows 
nothing.  He  tells  us,  however,  that  the  Jews  learned 
it  from  them.  He  goes  on  to  speculate  as  to  the  time 
when  that  close  intercourse  began  between  the  devil 
and  his  servants  on  earth  which  is  the  foundation  of 


CHAP.   V.]      THE  LITERATURE  OF  WITCHCRAFT.  417 

the  later  or  diabolical  magic,  and  concludes  that  his 
first  visible  appearance  on  this  mundane  stage  was 
as  the  enemy  of  Job.  Thence  he  is  led  to  inquire, 
in  his  fourth  chapter,  what  shapes  the  devil  assumed 
on  his  first  appearances  to  the  magicians  and  others, 
in  the  dawn  of  the  world's  history,  and  whether  he  is 
or  has  been  allowed  to  assume  a  human  shape  or  no. 
And  he  suggests  that  his  earliest  acquaintance  with 
mankind  was  made  through  dreams,  and  that  by  this 
method  he  contrived  to  infuse  into  men's  minds  an 
infinite  variety  of  corrupt  imaginations,  wicked  desires, 
and  abhorrent  conclusions  and  resolutions,  with  some 
ridiculous,  foolish,  and  absurd  things  at  the  same 
time. 

Defoe  then  proceeds  to  tell  an  Oriental  story,  which, 
doubtlessly,  is  his  own  invention  : 

Ali  Albrahazen,  a  Persian  wizard,  had.  it  is  said, 
this  kind  of  intercourse  with  the  devil.  He  was  a 
Sabean  by  birth,  and  had  obtained  a  wonderful  reputa- 
tion for  his  witchcraft,  so  that  he  was  sent  for  by  the 
King  of  Persia  upon  extraordinary  occasions,  such  as 
the  interpretation  of  a  dream,  or  of  an  apparition,  like 
that  of  Belshazzar's  handwriting,  or  of  some  meteor 
or  eclipse,  and  he  never  failed  to  give  the  King  satis- 
faction. For  whether  his  utterances  were  true  or 
false,  he  couched  them  always  in  such  ambiguous 
terms  that  something  of  what  he  predicted  might 
certainly  be  deduced  from  his  words,  and  so  seem  to 
import  that  he  had  effectually  revealed  it,  whether  he 
had  really  done  so  or  not. 

This    Ali,    wandering   alone    in    the    desert,    and 

27 


418  WITCH,  WARLOCK,  AND  MAGICIAN.      [BOOK  II. 

musing  much  upon  the  appearance  of  a  fiery  meteor, 
which,  to  the  great  terror  of  the  country,  had  flamed 
in  the  heavens  every  night  for  nearly  a  month,  sought 
to  apprehend  its  significance,  and  what  it  should  por- 
tend to  the  world ;  but,  failing  to  do  so,  he  sat  down, 
weary  and  disheartened,  in  the  shade  of  a  spreading 
palm.  Breathing  to  himself  a  strong  desire  that 
some  spirit  from  the  other  world  would  generously 
assist  him  to  arrive  at  the  true  meaning  of  a  phenome- 
non so  remarkable,  he  fell  asleep.  And,  lo  !  in  his 
sleep  he  dreamed  a  dream,  and  the  dream  was  this : 
that  a  tall  man  came  to  him,  a  tall  man  of  sage  and 
venerable  aspect,  with  a  pleasing  smile  upon  his 
countenance ;  and,  addressing  him  by  his  name,  told 
him  that  he  was  prepared  to  answer  his  questions,  and 
to  explain  to  him  the  signification  of  the  great  and 
terrible  fire  in  the  air  which  was  terrifying  all  Arabia 
and  Persia. 

His  explanation  proved  to  be  of  an  astronomical 
character.  These  fiery  appearances,  he  said,  were 
collections  of  vapour  exhaled  by  the  influence  of  the 
sun  from  earth  or  sea.  As  to  their  importance  to 
human  affairs,  it  was  simply  this :  that  sometimes  by 
their  propinquity  to  the  earth,  and  their  power  of 
attraction,  or  by  their  dissipation  of  aqueous  vapours, 
they  occasioned  great  droughts  and  insupportable 
heats ;  while,  at  other  times,  they  distilled  heavy  and 
unusual  rains,  by  condensing,  in  an  extraordinary 
manner,  the  vapours  they  had  absorbed.  And  he 
added :  '  Go  thou  and  warn  thy  nation  that  this  fiery 
meteor  portends  an  excessive  drought  and  famine ;  for 


CHAP.   V.]      THE  LITERATURE  OF  WITCHCRAFT.  419 

know  that  by  the  strong  exhalation  of  the  vapours  of 
the  earth,  occasioned  by  the  meteor's  unusual  nearness 
to  it,  the  necessary  rains  will  be  withheld,  and  to  a 
long  drought,  as  a  matter  of  course,  famine  and 
scarcity  of  corn  succeed.  Thus,  by  judging  accord- 
ing to  the  rules  of  natural  causes,  thou  shalt  predict 
what  shall  certainly  come  to  pass,  and  shalt  obtain 
the  reputation  thou  so  ardently  desirest  of  being  a 
wise  man  and  a  great  magician.' 

4  This  prediction,'  said  Ali,  '  was  all  very  well  as 
regarded  Arabia  ;  but  would  it  apply  also  to  Persia  ?' 
4  No,'  replied  the  devil ;  for  Ali's  interlocutor  was  no 
less  distinguished  a  personage — fiery  meteors  from 
the  same  causes  sometimes  produced  contrary  events ; 
and  he  might  repair  to  the  Persian  Court,  and  pre- 
dict the  advent  of  excessive  rains  and  floods,  which 
would  greatly  injure  the  fruits  of  the  earth,  and  occa- 
sion want  and  scarcity.  '  Thus,  if  either  of  these 
succeed,  as  it  is  most  probable,  thou  shalt  assuredly 
be  received  as  a  sage  magician  in  one  country,  if  not 
in  the  other  ;  also,  to  both  of  them  thou  mayest 
suggest,  as  a  probability  only,  that  the  consequence 
may  be  a  plague  or  infection  among  the  people, 
which  is  ordinarily  the  effect  as  well  of  excessive 
wet  as  of  excessive  heat.  If  this  happens,  thou  shalt 
gain  the  reputation  thou  desirest  ;  and  if  not,  seeing 
thou  didst  not  positively  foretell  it,  thou  shalt  not 
incur  the  ignominy  of  a  false  prediction.' 

Ali  was  very  grateful  for  the  devil's  assistance,  and 
failed  not  to  ask  how,  at  need,  he  might  again  secure 
it.  He  was  told  to  come  again  to  the  palm-tree,  and 

27—2 


420  WITCH,  WARLOCK,  AND  MAGICIAN.      [BOOK  II. 

to  go  around  it  fifteen  times,  calling  him  thrice  by 
his  name  each  time  :  at  the  end  of  the  fifteenth  cir- 
cumambulation  he  would  find  himself  overtaken  by 
drowsiness  ;  whereupon  he  should  lie  down  with  his 
face  to  the  south,  and  he  would  receive  a  visit  from 
him  in  vision.  The  devil  further  told  him  the  magic 
name  by  which  he  was  to  summon  him. 

The  magician's  predictions  were  duly  made  and 
duly  fulfilled.  Thenceforward  he  maintained  a  con- 
stant communication  with  the  devil,  who,  strange  to 
say,  seems  not  to  have  exacted  anything  from  him  in 
return  for  his  valuable,  but  hazardous,  assistance. 

Defoe's  fifth  chapter  contains  a  further  account  of 
the  devil's  conduct  in  imitating  divine  inspirations  ; 
describes  the  difference  between  the  genuine  and  the 
false  ;  and  dwells  upon  signs  and  wonders,  fictitious 
as  well  as  real.  In  chapter  the  sixth  our  author 
treats  of  the  first  practices  of  magic  and  witchcraft 
as  a  diabolical  art,  and  explains  how  it  was  handed 
on  to  the  Egyptians  and  Phoenicians,  by  whom  it  was 
openly  encouraged.  He  offers  some  amusing  remarks 
on  the  methods  adopted  by  magicians  for  summoning 
the  devil,  who  seems  to  be  at  once  their  servant  and 
master.  In  parts  of  India  they  go  up,  he  says,  to  the 
summit  of  some  particular  mountain,  where  they  call 
him  with  a  little  kettledrum,  just  as  the  good  old 
wives  in  England  hive  their  bees,  except  that  they 
beat  it  on  the  wrong  side.  Then  they  pronounce 
certain  words  which  they  call  '  charms,'  and  the  devil 
appears  without  fail. 

It  is  not  easy  to  discover  in  history  what  words 


CHAP.   V.J     THE  LITERATURE  OF  WITCHCRAFT.  421 

were  used  for  charms  in  Egypt  and  Arabia  for  so 
many  ages.  It  is  certain  they  differed  in  different 
countries  ;  and  it  is  certain  they  differed  as  the 
magicians  acted  together  or  individually.  Nor  are 
we  less  at  a  loss  to  understand  what  the  devil  could 
mean  by  suffering  such  words,  or  any  words  at  all,  to 
charm,  summon,  alarm,  or  arouse  him.  The  Greeks 
have  left  us,  he  says,  a  word  which  was  used  by  the 
magicians  of  antiquity  pretty  frequently — that  famous 
trine  or  triangular  word,  Abracadabra : 

ABRACADABRA 

ABRACADABR 

ABRACADAB 

ABRACADA 

A  B  R  A  C  A  D 

A  B  R  A  C  A 

A  B  R  A  C 

A  B  R  A 

A  B  R 

A  B 

A 

'  There  is  abundance  of  learned  puzzle  among  the 
ancients  to  find  out  the  signification  of  this  word  : 
the  subtle  position  of  the  letters  gave  a  kind  of 
reverence  to  them,  because  they  read  it  as  it  were 
every  way,  upwards  and  downwards,  backwards  and 
forwards,  and  many  will  have  it  still  that  the  devil 
put  them  together :  nay,  they  begin  at  last  to  think  it 
was  old  Legion's  surname,  and  whenever  he  was 
called  by  that  name,  he  used  to  come  very  readily  ; 
for  which  reason  the  old  women  in  their  chimney- 
corners  would  be  horribly  afraid  of  saying  it  often 
over  together,  for  if  they  should  say  it  a  certain 


422  WITCH,  WARLOCK,  AND  MAGICIAN.      [BOOK  II. 

number  of  times,  they  had  a  notion  it  would  certainly 
raise  the  devil. 

'  They  say,  on  the  contrary,  that  it  was  invented 
by  one  Basilides,  a  learned  Greek  ;  that  it  contained 
the  great  and  awful  name  of  the  Divinity  ;  and  that 
it  was  used  for  many  years  for  the  opposing  the 
spells  and  charms  of  the  Pagans  ;  that  is,  the 
diabolical  spells  and  charms  of  the  pagan  magi- 
cians.' 

In  the  seventh  chapter  we  read  of  the  practice  and 
progress  of  magic,  as  it  is  now  explained  to  be  a 
diabolical  art ;  how  it  spread  itself  in  the  world,  and 
by  what  degrees  it  grew  up  to  the  height  which  it 
has  since  attained. 

The  introduction  to  the  second  part  of  Defoe's 
work  is  devoted  to  an  exposition  of  the  Black  Art 
*  as  it  really  is/  and  sets  forth  c  why  there  are  several 
differing  practices  of  it  in  the  several  parts  of  the 
world,  and  what  those  practices  are  ;  as,  also,  what  is 
contained  in  it  in  general.'  He  defines  it  as  'a  new 
general  term  for  all  the  branches  of  that  correspon- 
dence which  mankind  has  maintained,  or  does,  or 
can  carry  on,  between  himself  and  the  devil,  between 
this  and  the  infernal  world.'  And  he  enumerates 
these  branches  as :  Divining,  or  Soothsaying ;  Ob- 
serving of  Times;  Using  Enchantment;  Witchcraft; 
Charming,  or  Setting  of  Spells ;  Dealing  with  Familiar 
Spirits ;  Wizardising,  or  Sorcery ;  and  Necromancy. 

The  first  chapter  treats  of  Modern  Magic,  or  the 
Black  Art  in  its  present  practice  and  perfection. 


CHAP.   V.]      THE  LITERATURE  OF  WITCHCRAFT.  423 

In  the  second  chapter  the  scene  is  changed  :  as  the 
devil  acted  at  first  with  his  Black  Art  without  the 
magicians,  so  the  magicians  seem  now  to  carry  it  on 
without  the  devil.  This  is  written  in  Defoe's  best 
style  of  sober  irony.  '  The  magicians/  he  says, 
'  were  formerly  the  devil's  servants,  but  now  they 
are  his  masters,  and  that  to  such  a  degree,  that  it  is 
but  drawing  a  circle,  casting  a  few  figures,  muttering 
a  little  Arabic,  and  up  comes  the  devil,  as  readily  as 
the  drawer  at  a  tavern,  with  a  D'ye  call,  sir  ?  or  like 
a  Scotch  caude  [caddie?],  with  What's  your  honour's 
wullj  sir?  Nay,  as  the  learned  in  the  art  say,  he 
must  come,  he  can't  help  it  :  then  as  to  tempting,  he 
is  quite  out  of  doors.  And  I  think,  as  the  Old 
Parliament  did  by  the  bishops,  we  may  e'en  vote  him 
useless.  In  a  word,  there  is  no  manner  of  occasion 
for  him  :  mankind  are  as  froward  as  he  can  wish  and 
desire  of  them  ;  nay,  some  cunning  men  tell  us  we 
sin  faster  than  the  devil  can  keep  pace  with  us  :  as 
witness  the  late  witty  and  moderately  wicked  Lady 
.  .  .  .,  who  blest  her  stars  that  the  devil  never 
tempted  her  to  anything ;  he  understood  himself 
better,  for  she  knew  well  enough  how  to  sin  without 
him,  and  that  it  would  be  losing  his  time  to  talk  to 
her.' 

Defoe  furnishes  an  entertaining  account  of  his 
conversation  with  a  countryman,  who  had  been  to  a 
magician  at  Oundle.  Whether  true  or  fictitious,  the 
narrative  shows  that  many  of  the  favourite  tricks 
performed  at  spiritualistic  seances  in  our  own  time 
were  well  known  in  Defoe's  : 


424  WITCH,  WARLOCK,  AND  MAGICIAN.      [BOOK  II. 

COUNTRYMAN.  I  saw  my  old  gentleman  in  a  great  chair,  and 
two  more  in  chairs  at  some  distance,  and  three  great  candles,  and 
a  great  sheet  of  white  paper  upon  the  floor  between  them  ;  every 
one  of  them  had  a  long  white  wand  in  their  hands,  the  lower  end 
of  which  touched  the  sheet  of  paper. 

DEFOE.  And  were  the  candles  upon  the  ground  too  ? 

C.  Yes,  all  of  them. 

D.  There  was  a  great  deal  of  ceremony  about  you,  I  assure 
you. 

C.  I  think  so,  too,  but  it  is  not  done  yet :  immediately  I  heard 
the  little  door  stir,  as  if  it  was  opening,  and  away  I  skipped  as 
softly  as  I  could  tread,  and  got  into  my  chair  again,  and  sat  there 
as  gravely  as  if  I  had  never  stirred  out  of  it.     I  was  no  sooner 
set,  but  the  door  opened  indeed,  and  the  old  gentleman  came  out 
as  before,  and  turning  to  me,  said,  '  Sit  still,  don't  ye  stir ;'  and  at 
that  word  the  other  two  that  were  with  him  in  the  room  walked 
out  after  him,  one  after  another,  across  the  room,  as  if  to  go  out 
at  the  other  door  where  I  came  in ;  but  at  the  further  end  of  the 
room  they  stopped,  and  turned  their  faces  to  one  another,  and 
talked ;  but  it  was  some  devil's  language  of  their  own,  for  I  could 
understand  nothing  of  it. 

D.  And  now  I  suppose  you  were  frighted  in  earnest  1 

C.  Ay,  so  I  was  ;  but  it  was  worse  yet,  for  they  had  not  stood 
long  together,  but  the  great  elbow-chair,  which  the  old  gentleman 
sat  in  at  the  little  table  just  by  me,  began  to  stir  of  itself;  at  which 
the  old  gentleman,  knowing  I  should  be  afraid,  came  to  me,  and 
said,  '  Sit  still,  don't  you  stir,  all  will  be  well ;  you  shall  have  no 
harm  ;'  at  which  he  gave  his  chair  a  kick  with  his  foot,  and  saith, 
'  Go  !'  with  some  other  words,  and  other  language  ;  and  away  went 
the  obedient  chair ,  sliding,  two  of  its  legs  on  the  ground,  and  the  other 
two  off,  as  if  somebody  had  dragged  it  by  that  part. 

D.  And  so,  no  doubt,  they  did,  though  you  could  not  see  it. 

C.  And  as  soon  as  the  chair  was  dragged  or  moved  to  the  end 
of  the  room,  where  the  three,  I  know  not  what  to  call  'em,  were, 
two  other  chairs  did  the  like  from  the  other  side  of  the  room,  and 
so  they  all  sat  down,  and  talked  together  a  good  while ;  at  last 
the  door  at  that  end  of  the  room  opened  too,  and  they  all  were 
gone  in  a  moment,  without  rising  out  of  their  chairs ;  for  I  am 
sure  they  did  not  rise  to  go  out,  as  other  folks  do. 

D.  What  did  you  think  of  yourself  when  you  saw  the  chair  stir 
so  near  you  ? 


CHAP.   V.]      THE  LITERATURE  OF  WITCHCRAFT.  425 

C.  Think  !  nay,  I  did  not  think ;  I  was  dead,  to  be  sure  I  was 
dead,  with  the  fright,  and  expected  I  should  be  carried  away, 
chair  and  all,  the  next  moment.     Then  it  was,  I  say,  that  my  hair 
would  have  lifted  off  my  hat,  -if  it  had  been  on,  I  am  sure  it 
would. 

D.  Well,  but  when  they  were  all  gone,  you  came  to  yourself 
again,  I  suppose  1 

C.  To  tell  you  the  truth,  master,  I  am  not  come  to  myself  yet. 

D.  But  go  on,  let  me  know  how  it  ended. 

C.  Why,  after  a  little  while,  my  old  man  came  in  again,  called 
his  man  to  set  the  chairs  to  rights,  and  then  sat  him  down  at  the 
table,  spoke  cheerfully  to  me,  and  asked  me  if  I  would  drink, 
which  I  refused,  though  I  was  a-dry  indeed.  I  believe  the  fright 
had  made  me  dry ;  but  as  I  never  had  been  used  to  drink  with 
the  devil,  I  didn't  know  what  to  think  of  it,  so  I  let  it  alone. 

In  his  third  chapter  ('  Of  the  present  pretences  of 
the  Magicians  ;  how  they  defend  themselves ;  and 
some  examples  of  their  practice ')  Defoe  has  a  lively 
account  of  a  contemporary  magician,  a  Dr.  Bowman, 
of  Kent,  who  seems  to  have  been  a  firm  believer  in 
what  is  now  called  Spiritualism.  He  was  a  green  old 
man,  who  went  about  in  a  long  black  velvet  gown 
and  a  cap,  with  a  long  beard,  and  his  upper  lip 
trimmed  '  with  a  kind  of  muschato.'  He  strongly 
repudiated  any  kind  of  correspondence  or  intercourse 
with  the  devil ;  but  hinted  that  he  derived  much 
assistance  from  the  good  spirits  which  people  the 
invisible  world.  After  dwelling  on  the  follies  of  the 
learned,  and  the  superstitions  of  the  ignorant,  this 
lordly  conjurer  said :  'You  see  how  that  we,  men  of 
art,  who  have  studied  the  sacred  sciences,  suffer  by 
the  errors  of  common  fame  ;  they  take  us  all  for 
devil-mongers,  damned  rogues,  and  conjurers/ 

The    fourth    chapter    discusses    the    doctrine    of 


426  WITCH,  WARLOCK,  AND  MAGICIAN.      [BOOK  II. 

spirits  as  it  is  understood  by  the  magicians  ;  how  far 
it  may  be  supposed  there  may  be  an  intercourse  with 
superior  beings,  apart  from  any  familiarity  with  the 
devil  or  the  spirits  of  evil  ;  with  a  transition  to  the 
present  times. 

And  so  much  for  the  £  Art  of  Magic  '  as  expounded 
by  Daniel  Defoe. 

In  1718  appeared  Bishop  Hutchinson's  'Historical 
Essay  concerning  Witchcraft/  a  book  written  in  a 
most  liberal  and  tolerant  spirit,  and.  at  the  same  time, 
with  so  much  comprehensiveness  and  exactitude,  that 
later  writers  have  availed  themselves  freely  of  its 
stores. 

Reference  may  also  be  made  to — 

John  Beaumont,  '  Treatise  of  Spirits,  Apparitions, 
Witchcrafts,  and  other  Magical  Practices/  1705. 

James  Braid  (of  Manchester),  '  Magic,  Witchcraft, 
Animal  Magnetism,  Hypnotism,  and  Electro- Biology' 
(1852),  in  which  there  is  very  little  about  witch- 
craft, but  a  good  deal  about  the  influence  of  the 
imagination. 

J.  C.  Colquhoun,  £  History  of  Magic,  Witchcraft, 
and  Animal  Magnetism/  1851. 

Rev.  Joseph  G-lanvill,  '  Sadducismus  Triumphatus ; 
or,  A  full  and  plain  Evidence  concerning  Witches  and 
Apparitions/  1670. 

Sir  Walter  Scott,  '  Letters  on  Demonology  and 
Witchcraft/  1831. 

Howard  Williams,  '  The  Superstitions  of  Witch- 
craft/ 1865. 


CHAP.   V.]      THE  LITERATURE  OF  WITCHCRAFT.  427 

It  may  be  a  convenience  to  the  reader  if  I  indicate 
some  of  the  principal  foreign  authorities  on  this 
subject.  Such  as — Institor  and  Sprenger's  great 
work,  'Malleus  Maleficarum '  (Nuremberg,  1494); 
The  monk  Heisterbach's  (Caesarius)  c  Dialogus  Mi- 
raculorum '  (ed.  by  Strange),  1851  ;  Cannaert's 
i  Proces  des  Sorcieres  en  Belgique/  1848  ;  Dr.  W.  G. 
Soldan's  *  Geschichte  der  Hexenprocesse '  (1843)  ; 
G.  C.  Horst's  l  Zauber-Bibliothek,  oder  die  Zauberei, 
Theurgie  und  Mantik,  Zauberei,  Hexen  und  Hexen 
processen,  Damonen,  Gespenster  und  Geisterer- 
scheinungen/  in  6  vols.,  1821 — a  most  learned  and 
exhaustive  work,  brimful  of  recondite  lore;  Collin  de 
Plancy's  i  Dictionnaire  Infernal ;  ou  Repertoire  Uni- 
versel  des  Etres,  des  Livres,  et  des  Choses  qui  tiennent 
aux  Apparitions,  aux  Divinations,  a  la  Magie,'  etc., 
1844  ;  Michelet's  '  La  Sorciere  '  is,  of  course,  bril- 
liantly written ;  R.  Reuss's  '  La  Sorcellerie  au  xvie. 
et  xviie.  Siecle/  1872  ;  Tartarotti's  '  Del  Congresso 
Notturno  delle  Lamie/  1749;  F.  Perreaud's  'De- 
monologie,  ou  Traite  des  Demons  et  Sorciers,' 
1655;  H.  Boguet's  'Discours  des  Sorciers/  1610 
(very  rare)  ;  and  Cotton  Mather's  '  Wonders  of  the 
Invisible  World/  1695 — a  monument  of  credulity, 
prejudice,  and  bigotry. 

BOOKS    ON   MAGIC. 

It  may  also  be  convenient  to  the  reader  if  I  enumerate 
a  few  of  the  principal  authorities  on  the  history  of 
Magic,  Sorcery,  and  Alchemy.  A  very  exhaustive 
list  will  be  found  in  the  *  Bibliotheca  Majrica  et  Pneu- 


428  WITCH,  WARLOCK,  AND  MAGICIAN.      [BOOK  II. 

matica/  by  Graessel,  1843 ;  and  an  '  Alphabetical 
Catalogue  of  Works  on  Hermetic  Philosophy  and 
Alchemy  is  appended  to  the  ;  Lives  of  Alchemystical 
Philosophers/  by  Arthur  Edward  Waite,  1888.  For 
ordinary  purposes  the  following  will  be  found  suffi- 
cient :  Langlet  du  Fresnoy,  '  Histoire  de  la  Philo- 
sophic Hermetique/  1742  ;  Gabriel  Naude,  '  Apologie 
pour  les  Grands  Hommes  faussement  soupqonnes  de 
Magie/  1625 ;  Martin  Antoine  Delrio,  '  Disquisi- 
tionum  Magicarum,  libri  sex/  1599 ;  L.  F.  Alfred 
Maury,  '  La  Magie  et  1'Astrologie  dans  TAntiquite  et 
au  Moyen  Age/  etc..  1860  ;  Eus.  Salverte,  '  Sciences 
Occultes/  ed.  by  Littre,  1856  (see  the  English  trans- 
lation, '  Philosophy  of  Magic/  with  Notes  by  Dr.  A. 
Todd  Thomson,  1846);  Abbe  de  Villars,  'Entretiens 
du  Comte  de  Gabalis '  ('  Voyages  Imaginaires/ tome  34), 
Englished  as  *  The  Count  de  Gabalis :  being  a  divert- 
ing History  of  the  Rosicrucian  Doctrine  of  Spirits/ 
etc.,  1714;  Elias  Ashmole,  '  Theatrum  Chemicum 
Britannicum ;'  Roger  Bacon,  '  Mirror  of  Alchemy/ 
1597  ;  Louis  Figuier,  '  Histoire  de  1'Alchimie  et  les 
Alchimistes/  1865;  Arthur  Edward  Waite,  'The 
Real  History  of  the  Rosicrucians/  1887  ;  Hargrave 
Jennings,  '  The  Rosicrucians/  new  edit.  ;  William 
Godwin,  *  Lives  of  the  Necromancers/  1834  ;  Dr.  T. 
Thomson,  'History  of  Chemistry/  1831;  'Encyclo- 
paedia Britannica/  in  locis ;  Dr.  Kopp,  '  Geschichte 
der  Chemie ;'  G.  Rodwell,  <  Birth  of  Chemistry/  1874  ; 
Haerfor,  'Histoire  de  la  Chimie/  etc.,  etc. 


BILLING  AND   SONS,    PRINTERS,    GUILDFORD. 


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